Joe Biden’s election for President of the United States was welcomed with enthusiasm and hope in Europe where expectations about healing and rebuilding transatlantic relations after Trump’s four years of denigration of the transatlantic relationship have run high.
While there has undoubtedly been change in the presidential personality, style, and rhetoric, as well as some concrete actions regarding the re-engagement of the US with multilateral institutions and its proactive commitment to the transatlantic security, including the moment of unity of transatlantic allies created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there has also been certain continuity with Trump’s “America First” foreign policy. This can mostly be seen in the field of trade, as well as the US foreign policy strategy in the Indo-Pacific region. In both cases, Biden has shown so far that he will pursue America’s own agenda and political interests, even if this implies sidelining European allies.
Given that President Biden has been in office for almost two years by now, it seems to be the right time to take stock of transatlantic relations so as to get a better understanding of what has changed and how the transatlantic relationship has evolved under the Biden administration.
In this context, the European Institute CIFE, dedicates its latest issue of the biannual journal "L'Europe en Formation" to transatlantic relations under the Biden administration.
The dossier "The Biden Administration and Transatlantic Relations: Challenges and Opportunities" was coordinated by Anna Dimitrova, Professor of International Affairs at ESSCA and member of the EU*Asia Institute. We congratulate her on this remarkable work.
As an introduction to this special issue, you will find Anna Dimitrova's article entitled: "Transatlantic Relations from Trump to Biden: Between Continuity and Change, Introduction to the Special Issue".
Click here to see the abstract and download the article
Thomas Hoerber, Professor of European Studies and Head of the EU*Asia Institute, contributed to this special edition with his well-documented article "The internationalisation of European Space Policy - from ESA to Starfleet Academy". In it, he outlines the history of the European Space Agency, its evolution, its links to European space policy and the current strategic challenges it faces.
