Reshaping the US-European Relations: From Alliance to a More Balanced Partnership

• 作者: Jin Ling
• 来源期刊: 中国国际问题研究
• 年，卷（期）: 2021,（2）
• 页码范围: 85-110
• 页数: 26页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

Since President Joe Biden of the United States took office, restructuring and redirecting the transatlantic relationship has received increasing attention. Unlike his predecessor Donald Trump, who pursued a unilateralist course and maintained a policy of challenging and dividing allies under the rubric of "America First," Biden loudly proclaims that "America is back," and promises to embrace multilateralism and rebuild strategic mutual trust with American allies. In particular, the Biden administration hopes to preserve the Western-led liberal international order jointly with Europe by repairing the transatlantic ties. This gives positive signals to the improvement of US-European relations. However, we need to move beyond the policy adjustment made by a new government and focus on the structural elements that determine US-European relations, including the changes in the international power configuration and order, the respective economic and social transitions within the US and Europe, as well as the division and reorganization of each other's power, perceptions and interests. The foreign policies and initiatives of the Biden administration will undoubtedly ease many of the tensions between the two sides during the Trump era, and will improve their interaction and coordination on multilateral issues, but it is difficult to totally reverse the trend of their estrangement. In other words, the US-European relations can only be transformed from alliance to partnership through a new round of interactions.