In less than a fortnight President Obama will embark on an eight-day, four-nation tour of Europe and Turkey where his reception from the public is likely to be in marked contrast to the ritual protests that usually greeted George Bush’s ventures across the Atlantic.

This should not, however, serve to obscure the reality that many of Mr Obama’s proposals to steer a new course are running into the hard rock of self-interested resistance from some of the same countries that did so much to damage the agenda of his predecessor.

Just as France and Germany led international opposition to the Iraq war seven years ago, Mr Obama is discovering that what Donald Rumsfeld once branded “Old Europe” is a significant obstacle to his ambitions for the global economy, the unfinished war in Afghanistan or reaching out to the Muslim world. And, just as Tony Blair backed Mr Bush in the fractious debates over Iraq, Gordon Brown is generally siding with Mr Obama rather than Britain’s EU partners.

Robert Kagan, a foreign policy strategist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: “It was premature and foolish to believe that the only problem with relations between Europe and the United States was the existence of the ‘wrong American President’. That has, I think, already been demonstrated as untrue.

“There is an innate caution in Europe, where people are fundamentally satisfied with life and possibly believe issues like Afghanistan and the economy are messes of America’s making. The US approach involves more risk-taking. We come in and tell Europeans they should be more worried about everything.”

Even before Mr Obama arrives in London on March 31 for his first stop, the G20 summit of rich and developing nations, a significant rift has opened up over the size of national stimulus packages and mutual accusations of protectionism. Germany and France have been hostile to repeated pleas from Washington for Europe to increase spending in line with that of Mr Obama’s Administration. Efforts to provide more help for the stricken economies of many countries in Eastern and Central Europe – or what Mr Rumsfeld called “New Europe” – have been similarly resisted.

Instead, they have spent much of their energy pushing a narrow national plan for tighter regulation of financial institutions and hedge funds.

Paul Krugman, the Nobel laureate economist, used his New York Times column this week to single out Peer Steinbrück, the German Finance Minister, for engaging in “know-nothing diatribes” against stimulus measures. He also alleged that Jean-Claude Trichet, the European Central Bank President, was “weirdly complacent” about the risk of deflation.

From London, Mr Obama heads to Strasbourg for a 60th anniversary meeting of Nato at a time when the alliance is creaking from the strains of trying to fight a coalition war in Afghanistan. Although France has ended a long stand-off with Nato and promises to resume its place as a full member, President Sarkozy has so far ignored entreaties from the US and the UK for his country to do more to share the military burden.

France currently contributes around 3,000 troops to the mission, compared with more than 8,000 from Britain, while America is planning to increase its deployment of 38,000 by at least 17,000. Around 3,500 German soldiers are in Afghanistan but they operate on strict orders to avoid combat if possible. As John Hutton, the British Defence Secretary, acknowledged on a visit to Washington this week, the best that Mr Obama can probably hope for is additional financial and logistical support.

The third stop on Mr Obama’s journey is Prague for a US-EU summit. But the Czech Republic’s eccentric presidency of the European Union is demonstrating many of the structural weaknesses of an institution that he had once hoped would be a strong and united partner.

The final leg of his tour takes the President to Turkey, where he may deliver a much anticipated address to the Muslim world. His promised “open hand” to Islam contrasts with the door being slammed in Turkey’s face by France and Germany, who have consistently resisted its application for EU membership.

As Poul Rasmussen, the Socialist leader in the European Parliament, said: “In the past, Europe blamed President George W. Bush for the lack of constructive global leadership. Today it is Europe that risks being blamed by the rest of the world.”

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