The End of Trans-Atlanticism
Key takeaways
- This article is one of 10 essays in the Summer 2026 print issue, The End of the World as We Know It.
- The current crisis between Europe and the United States marks the end of an era—regardless of who follows Donald Trump.
- The international context in which the bond bloomed—first in the postwar period and then in the era after the fall of the Berlin Wall—was one in which the United States was a liberal leviathan.
This article is one of 10 essays in the Summer 2026 print issue, The End of the World as We Know It.
The current crisis between Europe and the United States marks the end of an era—regardless of who follows Donald Trump. The trans-Atlantic bond rested on specific features at the global level as well as within the United States and Europe. All are now gone.
The international context in which the bond bloomed—first in the postwar period and then in the era after the fall of the Berlin Wall—was one in which the United States was a liberal leviathan. It had fought and won two global wars—World War II and the Cold War—standing for liberal values. Those victories enabled it to spread those norms, first across Western Europe and parts of Asia and then throughout the world. The order that rested on U.S. power, including international organizations and laws, was imbued with a liberal ethos.