The fraying transatlantic order and Europe's struggle in a multipolar world

Riccardo Alcaro looks at the tense U.S.-Europe relationship at the dawn of a multipolar world order. He maintains that, on the surface, the Europeans’ role conception and performance as transatlantic allies have dovetailed. In reality, however, their performance has rather been that of secondary players, when not subdued or restive followers, constantly struggling to reconcile their foreign policy priorities with those of the United States. The “populist revolution,” and especially the advent of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, may stretch that delicate exercise in reconciling Europe’s interests with the transatlantic relationship to the breaking point. He concludes that Europe’s recently stated ambition to pursue strategic autonomy has thus turned into a matter of necessity.