And relations are resilient.

But whenever a crisis breaks out, both sides realise very quickly that together they are much more efficient in defending their interests. The US needs support and legitimacy when it wants to act, and Europeans need the US to take a lead and to build a coalition. Together they are unmatched in military and diplomatic power and in economic weight. And on most issues they easily find agreement, because they have a decades-long history of working together and because they share the values of liberal democracy. In the more than two decades since the end of the Cold War, both sides of the Atlantic have remained the best of partners, despite some disagreements. They have dealt with crises on the Balkans together; they have gone to war together in Afghanistan and elsewhere; they worked in tandem in dealing with global challenges at the level of the G8 (now G7), the G20 and the UN and in other global fora. They remain each other’s most important markets. Furthermore, Russian attempts during the 2000s to split key European countries—Germany and France—away from the US and to form some kind of Eurasian geopolitical alliance excluding the US, weren’t successful, despite the deep rift over the Iraq war. Today the Russian assault on the European peace order has brought the two sides together again in formulating a joint, closely coordinated response. Apparently, Europe and the US and Canada still form the core of what has come to be known as the West—an alliance of like-minded, closely connected liberal democracies and market economies. Together they have, despite all disagreements, built and enlarged a zone of stability, liberty and prosperity that stretches across all continents and serves as the backbone of globalisation.