Global Outreach and Regional Consequences: The Impact of US Interventionism on Transatlantic Relations

In the post-Cold War scenario, a contradictory relationship between a renewed globalization and the emergence of resilient processes of regionalization has emerged as one of the defining features of the current international system. In this context, marked by unipolarity, the US plays a decisive role, since it is the only actual global actor in the international arena and, at the same time, it is forced to manage multifaceted strategic competitions in different regions. The chapter focuses on a specific aspect of how this ambiguity is shaping US foreign policy and transatlantic relations. The main argument suggested is that the unipolar condition has three main effects on regional alliances: (a) it makes the alliances with the unipolar state more sensitive to regional dynamics; (b) it increases the effects coming from the asymmetry of power between the unipolar state and the allies; and (c) it poses the issue of credibility attached to allies’ commitment in starker terms. The chapter then assesses these expected effects against two of NATO’s interventions: in Afghanistan and Libya. Both cases seem to confirm that allies tend to attach greater importance to regional considerations, that secondary allies suffer from a greater capacity of the US to go it alone or go with less institutionalized coalitions of the willing, and that the credibility regarding the allies’ commitment to collective security is undermined by the unpredictability of the unipole behaviour.