Elastic relations : looking to both sides of the Atlantic in the 2020 us presidential election year

First published online: 29 August 2021Regardless of how we define the so-called liberal order, its global reach and actor-composition (Eilstrup-Sangiovanni and Hofmann, 2020), most if not all pundits and scholars alike agree that the transatlantic relationship lies at the heart of this order (Ikenberry, 2000). At the core of the transatlantic relationship is a security commitment tying the US to the European continent and vice versa. This commitment is not only encapsulated in an international treaty, the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949, but also in a formal intergovernmental organization (IGO), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Some even argue that the liberal order has never extended much beyond the transatlantic relationship, as US alliance-building in Europe has greatly differed from alliance-building in the Middle East and East Asia (Staniland, 2018).This article was published Open Access with the support from the EUI Library through the CRUI - Wiley Transformative Agreement (2020-2023