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Mitchell P. Smith is professor and associate dean for academic affairs in the University of Oklahoma's College of International Studies. He has been a European Union Fulbright Fellow in Belgium and a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. He has authored, co-authored, or edited several books on the European Union and is completing a book about the deep perceptual divide in the United States and how it is damaging democracy. His essay “Soft Power Rising: Romantic Europe in the Service of Practical Europe” appeared in the January 2006 issue of WLT.