Europe can’t go back. It must learn to live without America |
Transatlantic relations are at a tipping point following the collapse of European trust in the United States’s commitment to shared interests and values. The resulting tensions are deep-seated, arising from forces at play before Donald Trump’s two presidencies, and they will last beyond him, despite the midterm defeats. There is no going back to what was there before.
The transition under way demands vision, ambition and risk from leaders to redefine the European Union’s role in world affairs. This point was made in a recent panel on transatlantic relations organised by UCD’s Clinton Institute at the Royal Irish Academy. The preferred pathway discussed is through a reconfigured liberal internationalism. It would draw on links with Canada, Norway and Iceland, a new relationship with the UK, a fast-track enlargement process for Ukraine and new relations with international players such as Japan and Asean states. Not mentioned was the need for stronger EU-Africa links.
Can the EU be a superpower like the US or China? If not, how can its collective power be mobilised to optimise its strengths? Do its interests in economic interdependence and security gravitate it back towards some sort of recalibrated and more tightly bordered “West”, representing 12 per cent of the world’s people? Tiny economic elites continue to control most........