When the Associated Press and other major media outlets reported that Joe Biden had won the United States’ 2020 presidential election, it didn’t take European leaders long to congratulate him — from U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson to German Chancellor Angela Merkel to French President Emmanuel Macron. But journalist Vincent Bevins, in an article published by The New Yorker this week, warns that President Biden has his work cut out for him when it comes to U.S.-Europe relations.
“Major European leaders breathed a collective sigh of relief when it became clear that Joe Biden would actually take over as president of the United States,” Bevins observes. “But the continent is not about to act as if the past four years didn’t happen. The European Union is seeking to be less dependent on, and less deferential to, Washington than it has ever been before. The idea that Europe should pursue a fundamental shift in transatlantic relations predates Trump, but his administration — by attacking allies, tearing up agreements, and threatening democracy itself — helped convince many more Europeans that it is a good one.”
Former President Donald Trump was overtly hostile to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during his four years in office, whereas Biden campaigned on saving and strengthening NATO. But according to Bevins, “Europe now sees the United States as a relatively unreliable friend and a diminished power and therefore, wants to create some distance and set its own geopolitical priorities.” Continue reading.