The Real Transatlantic Partnership

The Trump administration is shaking the transatlantic alliance, attacking Europeans on common values and refusing to give them a seat at the table at Ukraine peace talks, conversations inherently about their own security. These developments are alarming to Europeans and Atlanticists in the United States, but not because of a knee-jerk fealty to history or tradition. They raise concerns because the administration’s rhetoric undermines common European and American interests, not least of which are economic. In a transatlantic fracture, both the United States and Europe stand to lose. Taking existing trade ties and investments for granted, and risking future transatlantic trade on the altar of hopes for “historic economic and investment opportunities” with the Kremlin, as the US State Department indicated after recent high-level meetings between American and Russian officials in Riyadh this week, would be a mistake.

But the White House does not have a monopoly on transatlantic ties. The relationship between Europe and the United States is not just one of elected leaders and fickle administrations. It is the amalgamation of the bonds between Europeans and Americans who build and protect their societies standing shoulder to shoulder with each other every day. In the United States, Europe is the engine that funds the jobs of workers in Tennessee who build Volkswagen cars. It is the driver of the livelihoods of brave Iowans who produce 155mm artillery shells and rifles, dangerous work that provides Ukraine and Europeans on NATO’s eastern flank the ability to hold off Russian attacks. In Europe, the United States is the ambitious motivator that spurs programmers to dream up new technologies. It is the market that drove Danish innovators to turn Ozempic into a biotech phenomenon.

The power of the transatlantic alliance was proved in this century’s Middle East wars, which in Washington today serve as a model of foreign policy folly rather than success. Americans need to remember the right lesson from Iraq and Afghanistan: Europe sent their young soldiers to fight because the United States asked them to do so. More than 1,000 Europeans died. It is the veterans of these wars who remember the trust and power of that service and sacrifice. In West Virginia, Alabama, and Texas, I have met with veterans who know what transatlantic ties really mean. That partnership has given the United States global strength and Europeans a bond that resonates through American communities in the heartland.

It is up to all Europeans and Americans who exemplify these elements of the transatlantic relationship to be vocal and take back the narrative from those on both sides of the Atlantic who seek to write off such ties. Rather than being alarmed, Europeans and Americans can and should look at their workplaces, their militaries, and their societies to understand the strength that lies in their partnership.