Europe-US: The Recovery

Hubert Coudurier offers his point of view on relations between the United States and Europe, which could improve after Joe Biden’s victory in the American presidential election.

Relatively discreetly in the face of Donald Trump’s judicial guerrilla warfare, which ended in predictable failure, Joe Biden stepped in earlier this week to set the record straight. In noting that he obtained an equivalent number of Electoral College votes as his opponent did four years ago, and who, back then, described his victory as a landslide, Biden undermined the efforts of the real estate mogul who is intent on spoiling the transition.

In the process, the winner of the U.S. presidential election is said to have contacted the British prime minister to let him know that his populist leadership, appreciated by Trump, no longer suits America. And that he could no longer automatically count on the special bond between the United States and its former colonial authority to offer an alternative to the United Kingdom in the event of a “no deal” Brexit.

As the pandemic widens the gap not only between Europe and Asia, but between the United States and China, which was much less impacted by COVID-19, the new president could signal a renewed trans-Atlantic relationship. Trump was at odds with his Western allies, driving a wedge into the multilateralism embodied by the U.N., the World Health Organization and NATO.

Taking into account the evolution of the balance of power on a global geopolitical scale with a new cold war looming, this time between the United States and China, the future American president seems to want to recreate the link between America and the Old Continent. Because more than a military confrontation, it is an economic war that is developing with a race for new technologies.

Drained by COVID-19 (particularly France, Italy and Spain with their crashing economies), European growth awaits a recovery plan. Biden could be the catalyst.