Transatlantic Fissure Against Pandemia Background

• Main Author: Alexander Shumilin
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Institute of Europe Russian Academy of Sciences 2020-03-01
• Series: Научно-аналитический вестник Института Европы РАН
• Subjects: transatlantic partnership; euro-atlantic; usa; european union; trade war; china; pandemic; epidemic; coronavirus
• Online Access: http://vestnikieran.instituteofeurope.ru/images/Shumilin32020.pdf

The article explores the main directions and reasons for the evolution of relations between the United States and the EU within the transatlantic partnership during the coronavirus pandemic. The author sets himself the task of identifying the degree of real impact of the pandemic factor on the problem nodes in relations between the Euro-Atlantic allies. Most of the disagreements, the author believes, are directly caused by the policy of the D. Trump administration in the period preceding the epidemic. This is a set of problems related to the state of trade and economic relations between the US and the EU, as well as the strategy of tough confrontation with China proclaimed by the White House. Despite Brussels’ criticism of Beijing’s policies towards EU countries during the epidemic, the EU leadership is trying to maintain its own long-term approach to China. And at the same time prevent the division of the world into two spheres of influence in the post-pandemic period – the United States and China. In general, the author concludes that the influence of the coronavirus factor on transatlantic relations is reduced to the effect of a political-psychological nature: it significantly increased the degree of mistrust between the allies on both sides of the Atlantic. At the same time, he clearly showed the inclination of the Trump administration to unilateral actions, which caused open indignation of the European partners of the United States.