Trump or Biden, the U.S. and Europe Will Split
Slowly but surely, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge keeps pushing the North American and European plates apart, at the rate of about an inch a year. Something similar is happening in geopolitical tectonics. One generation ago the U.S. was western Europe’s indispensable ally. Today, under President Donald Trump, it often looks more like Europe’s “foe” (Trump’s word) than friend.
That’s why Europeans, too, are waiting with bated breath for the U.S. presidential election next month. If Trump wins, the transatlantic rift will make another audible crack. If Joe Biden wins, the loudest sound will be the popping of champagne corks. But before long, Europeans will have to admit that the gradual estrangement continues no matter who’s in the White House.
Transatlantic relations started fraying long before Trump. They almost snapped during the administration of George W. Bush, before Barack Obama restored them a bit. Even that was largely cosmetic.
It was Obama, with Biden as vice president, who announced America’s strategic “pivot” to Asia, giving a name to a secular shift in orientation from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And previous U.S. presidents were already complaining — albeit politely — that the Europeans, and above all the Germans, were spending too little on their own armies to be dependable NATO allies, and free-riding on a global commercial system chaperoned by the U.S.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-10-08/election-2020-trump-or-biden-the-u-s-and-europe-will-split