With the reunification of Germany in 1990, the world had given the German people a second chance to return to the fold. Thus opined the great German-American historian Fritz Stern on the fate of the community of Euro-Atlantic nations. Three decades later, America’s European allies have the fortuitous opportunity to return the favour: to President Biden. But are they prepared to do so? On Washington’s old terms that characterized the transatlantic relationships of the Cold War and post-Cold War era? The Biden administration’s sincere commitment to repair old alliances notwithstanding, it is actually America that is giving Europe a second chance.
President Trump was maligned for abandoning America’s traditional approach to its alliances, brazenly putting ‘America First’. But was this isolationism, or just unilateralism? The basic premise of study is that this nuance between these two concepts holds the key to unlocking the transatlantic relationship: past, present and especially future. Trump’s approach was widely misconstrued as isolationist in tenor. But America has never been isolationist (at least not since the late 19th century). Rather, a legacy of unilateralism is the bedrock principle that upholds the American foreign policy tradition. This epiphany is consequential.