This issue of WeltTrends features the debate about the future of the transatlantic relationship and world order after the Iraq war. It was started by Thomas Risse with his article in the previous edition. Thomas Risse elaborated on three main points of contention between the United States and Europe: the role of international law and multilateralism, democracy and human rights, and the strategy towards new security threats. <br>Most of the scholars, contributing to the debate in this issue agree with Risse in that there is no alternative to the transatlantic partnership and offer possible paths towards its renewal. The debate will be continued with additional comments and a rebuttal by Thomas Risse in the next Winter issue.

L’Europe est progressivement devenue, pour les Américains, un contre-modèle. Les divergences entre les États-Unis et l’Europe résultent d’une césure politique et culturelle, masquée depuis le début de la Guerre froide (et même depuis la Première Guerre mondiale) par les impératifs de la bipolarité.L’étude des fondements anthropologiques de l’Occident, met en évidence l’unité théologique, juridique et logique de l’Europe et l’Amérique de l’Antiquité aux Lumières. La civilisation occidentale se situe à l’intersection de l’orbite institutionnelle de la civilisation du droit civil romano-canonique et de celle du christianisme.Ces divergences entre l’Europe et les États-Unis se dessinèrent en fait dès les origines de la modernité politique. Sur tous les points essentiels de la philosophie politique – liens entre religion et pensée éclairée, laïcité et sécularisation, conceptions de la liberté et de l’égalité, rapport dialectique entre république et démocratie, fondements du prométhéisme politique et social, conception de l’universalisme –, tout oppose l’Amérique et l’Europe.Pour ce qui relève de la post-modernité, nous montrons comment la philosophie libérale a recyclé les idées faussement révolutionnaires pour conduire l’Europe à une crise multiforme, un nihilisme qui se dissimule sous le masque avenant de la marchandisation généralisée et de l’esprit libertaire. À la différence de l’Europe postmoderne, l’Amérique a partiellement réussi à se mettre à l’abri de ces dynamiques de désintégration. La « nation indispensable » a su entretenir le style national américain dont l’attachement sans faille à la nation et la religiosité sont les principales caractéristiques. / Europe gradually became, in the eyes of the Americans, a counter-model. The discrepancies between the United States and Europe result from a political and cultural caesura which was hidden from the beginning of the Cold war by the imperatives of bipolarity.The study of the anthropological foundations of the West highlights the theological, legal and logical unity of Europe and America from the Antiquity to the Enlightenment. The birth of the Western civilisation takes place at the intersection of the orbit of the romano-canonical civil law and that of Christianity.These discrepancies between Europe and the United States actually took shape from the origins of the political modernity. All the essential points of political philosophy – the links between religion and enlightened thinking, secularism, the conceptions of freedom and equality, the relationship between republic and democracy, the foundations of the political and social Prometheism – are areas of divergence.Concerning the post-modernity, we will then show how the liberal philosophy recycled pseudo-revolutionary ideas which led Europe to a manifold crisis, a type of nihilism, hidden by the disguise of the generalized commodification and the libertarian ideology. Unlike postmodern Europe, America partially managed to escape from these dynamics of disintegration. The “indispensable nation” managed to preserve the American national style the main characteristics of which are patriotism and religiosity.

Questo lavoro analizza le relazioni tra Stati Uniti ed alleati europei dal 1989 ad oggi, con particolare approfondimento del periodo successivo all'undici settembre 2001. L'ipotesi di ricerca è basata sulla convinzione che gli attentati del 2001 abbiano avuto un impatto fondamentale sulla relazione euro-atlantica, accelerando tendenze centrifughe già presenti nel rapporto. La tesi è composta da un'analisi storica, da sette capitoli e dalle conclusioni. L'analisi storica esamina i cambiamenti strutturali nella relazione transatlantica dopo il 1989. I capitoli 1 e 2 presentano le correnti politiche determinanti nel formulare la politica estera americana dopo il 2001, con particolare riferimento al movimento neoconservatore. I capitoli 3 e 4 analizzano la definizione di impero moderno , la questione se gli Stati Uniti siano o meno un impero e la possibilità che l'Unione europea (UE) diventi una superpotenza. I capitoli 5, 6 e 7 approfondiscono tre nodi gordiani : il futuro della NATO; la Russia tra Stati Uniti e UE; e la relazione triangolare tra Stati Uniti, Cina e UE. Infine, le conclusioni riassumono le debolezze del rapporto tra Stati Uniti ed alleati europei, evidenziano come esse siano peggiorate dopo gli attentati del 2001 e presentano i pericoli in cui la relazione potrebbe incorrere in futuro. / This dissertation studies the relationship between the United States and its European allies from the end of the Cold War to the present, with a focus on the period following the terror attacks on September 11, 2001. The primary conclusion is that 9/11 accelerated divisive trends within transatlantic alliance. The dissertation has an historical introduction, seven chapters and the conclusions. The historical introduction analyzes the structural changes occurred within the transatlantic relationship after 1989. Chapters 1 and 2 discuss the political movements and ideas that shaped American foreign policy after 9/11, with a focus on the neoconservative movement. Chapters 3 and 4 define the idea of modern empire ; its use in reference to the United States; and the idea that the European Union is becoming a superpower able to counterbalance the United States. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 focus on three looming challenges within the transatlantic relationship: the future of NATO; relations with Russia; and the rise of China. The conclusions summarize the weaknesses of the relationship between the United States and its European allies; highlight how they deteriorated after 9/11; and describe the dangers that lay ahead for the transatlantic alliance.