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Reviewing the academic literature about the "culture war" debate in the United States, this paper shows that there is no consensus among experts of American politics regarding the thesis that there is a "culture war" under way in the United States and that the American society is polarized on social and moral issues such as abortion, gun control or gay rights. The paper then explains why the arguments debunking the "myth of a polarized America" are relatively absent in the U.S. and Qudbec media coverage of American politics. The last part of the paper argues that the reproduction of this myth has negative consequences for both U.S. and Qudbec societies, but also for Qudbec-U.S. relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the current research on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) points to an alliance that is deeply troubled, largely irrelevant, or is bound to collapse. Nearly all of this research focuses on the transatlantic differences over Iraq, the wide differences in military capabilities between the United States and its allies, or the perceived negative impact of alliance expansion. Within recent literature, no research examines Congress's role in shaping the alliance's evolution. This paper examines Congress's views toward NATO across four issue areas; alliance expansion, NATO'S role in Afghanistan, NATO's assistance to the African Union in Sudan, and NATO's role in Iraq after Operation Iraqi Freedom. This paper finds that Congress devoted little attention to shaping NATO's transformation, and was surprisingly disengaged on NATO'S mission in Afghanistan. While examples of congressional entrepreneurship were evident, Congress was mostly deferential to the president. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]