The United States and Europe face a host of common economic and security challenges that are well-known and well-debated: The risk of future terrorist attacks, the effects of global warming, exorbitant gas and food prices and the global credit crunch are recognized as transnational threats for which transatlantic cooperation will be critical.
A recent article by Russell Shorto in The New York Times Magazine entitled "No Babies," however, sets forth one of those rare problems that Europe, but not the United States, is facing: dangerously low birth rates. How Europe goes about solving this demographic challenge will reveal a great deal about whether it is ready to embrace diversity, and thus whether it is ready to be a true 21st century leader.
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