Transatlantic ties transformed on Ukraine war anniversary

• Published date: 26 February 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

Some 12 months into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, key upside surprises include not just the remarkable resilience of Ukraine's fighting forces and wider populace, but also the unity and steadfastness of the Western alliance in the post-Trump era, as showcased with Joe Biden's visit to Ukraine.

Well documented is the fact that the EU-27 has shown unexpected solidarity in the last year since the Ukraine conflict began, albeit with the frequent, significant exception of Hungary's intransigence. Building from this, however, is the restoration of the wider transatlantic alliance in the post-Trump era, in no small way thanks to the statecraft of the Biden administration.

To be sure, there are very significant sores that continue to exist between the United States and Europe. These include the new U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) legislation which has caused much concern across the EU-27, and indeed other allies including the United Kingdom.

Problematic as those tensions are, however, the transatlantic alliance has largely recovered from the nadir of the Trump era. And Russia's invasion of Ukraine has helped with this revitalization of the alliance in the face of a resurgent Moscow.

The Biden team's emphasis on rebuilding Western partnerships stands in stark contrast to Trump who declared during his presidency that "I think the EU is a foe, what they do to us [the United States] in trade." The contrast between Trump, with his calls for a weaker Europe and more "Brexits" across the continent, and U.S. policy at the start of the EU integration process in the early post-war era could not be starker.

The latter was embodied in John F. Kennedy's 1962 Atlantic Partnership speech. The core U.S. view for decades, through different Democratic and Republican presidencies, was that a united Europe would make future wars in the continent less likely, create a stronger partner for the U.S. in meeting the challenges posed by the Soviet Union and offer a more vibrant market for building transatlantic prosperity.

So this was, by and large, the tone of post-war U.S. administrations till the turn of the millennium. And its direction chimes much more with Biden's approach today, than Trump's from 2017 to 2021.

Yet, political stripes aside, there is little question that overall U.S. attitudes have ? at least in some areas ? gradually become more ambivalent as European integration deepened, particularly (but not exclusively) in recent Republican administrations. That is why the future...