Trade and Transatlantic Relations: Old Dogs and New Tricks

Abstract

Abstract Transatlantic relations, it is widely alleged, have fallen on hard times. For every analysis that concludes that the relationship between Europe and America is ‘broadly healthy and, in some areas, thriving’ (European Commission 2005d: 3), there are more that portray the transatlantic allies as being ‘at war’ (Gordon and Shapiro 2004), ‘at odds’ (Mowle 2004), or ‘under stress’ (Andrews 2005). In the circumstances, it is easy to forget how much western Europe and the USA invested in institutionalizing their relationship after 1945, to the point where it became common to refer to a ‘transatlantic security community’ (see Risse 2003b). This community was built largely on mutual security guarantees and the NATO, but one of its primary foundations was an economic relationship that became a source of enormous prosperity.