Global Horizons of the Atlantic Alliance: the Biden “Vaccine”

Abstract

The article examines the conceptual issues of the transatlantic relations under the American administration in 2021 and the renewal of the NATO strategy. The NATO summit in Brussels on June 14, 2021, which was attended by US President Joe Biden, was initially seen as a US “coming back” to Europe after a turbulent “trumpism” period in transatlantic relations. The summit communiqué defines the main lines of the alliance transformation in response to the growing challenges to Euro-Atlantic security, considering the main ones incoming from Russia and China, while also imposed by international terrorism. The analysis of the Summit decisions and the follow-up of Joe Biden's European meetings proves the alliance globalization trend, both in geopolitical and functional terms. The summit, while having adopted the NATO 2030 Agenda, decided to adopt a new strategic concept at the next meeting in Spain in 2022. The author argues that the unresolved transatlantic problems and the allies’ disagreements internally challenge the alliance “global” strategy. The “trusted leadership” the Biden administration sets against the “Trump Doctrine” undermines the allies’ ability to step up the European strategic autonomy project, including in relations with Russia and China, as well as in after-Brexit Euro-Atlantic rebalancing.