Trans-Atlanticism Isn’t Dead—It’s Being Renegotiated
Key takeaways
- To celebrate America’s 250th birthday, our entire site is completely unlocked this week only.
- The obituaries for trans-Atlanticism are being written too soon.
- The case for the demise of trans-Atlanticism rests on the claim that it is inseparable from the liberal international order that has collapsed.
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The obituaries for trans-Atlanticism are being written too soon. The Trump administration has indeed profoundly shaken the U.S.-European relationship. But Nathalie Tocci’s recent essay in Foreign Policy, which posits that trans-Atlanticism as a living, operative force is over, mistakes a needed transformation for a terminal diagnosis. The evidence points not to the end of the trans-Atlantic alliance but to the emergence of a more demanding and ultimately more durable partnership that signals Europe’s long-delayed emergence as a geopolitically mature entity.
The case for the demise of trans-Atlanticism rests on the claim that it is inseparable from the liberal international order that has collapsed. But trans-Atlanticism was never only a values project. It was—and remains—a convergence of security, economic, and technological interests between two regions that together account for roughly 43 percent of global GDP and comprise the world’s most capable military alliance.