Transatlanticism in Theory and Practice – Its Past, Present, and Future

Transatlanticism has been a persistent pattern of international security, binding the US and Canada to allies in Europe in an Atlantic political order. The development of that order during the Cold War, was seen variously as having a logic of state-interaction that was realist (balancing against the Warsaw Pact), institutionalist (obtaining the benefits of permanent intergovernmental cooperation), and social (behaving according to the norms of a discrete political and security community). In policy terms, meanwhile, transatlanticism was premised on an acknowledgement of NATO as the principal security connection between Europe and North America, and the assumption that the territorial defence of the European theatre was that body’s core rationale. These underlying premises have eroded over the last two decades, giving rise to an ongoing policy debate on the shape and future of the transatlantic relationship, and the status of the Alliance. Current policy trends – a post-Afghanistan retreat from counter-insurgency and nation-building, the US ‘pivot’ to Asia, and defence austerity on both sides of the Atlantic – are set to reshape the relationship still further. This policy debate has had theoretical consequences. The logics of power, institutionalisation and community remain the dominant perspectives for analysing the nature of Atlantic order, but how useful these are is a question worth posing; two decades of theorising now permit a stocktake of scholarly efforts. The fluid policy context has challenged conventional approaches and opened up space for normative and critical views. This section and its accompanying panels thus consider subjects of topical policy-relevance (defence spending, geographic and functional priorities) while remaining cognisant of theoretical debate. The section speaks to the recent past and problematic present of Atlantic order (with NATO at its core) and the potential for, and possibilities of, transformation, adaptation, or breakdown.