Values, Identity and Ideational Shocks in the Transatlantic Rift

Abstract The current crisis in transatlantic relations shows an interesting relationship between processes of identity formation and the response to ideational shocks in complex communities with different degrees of consolidation. The US could adopt a pragmatic approach to the transformation of the existent international order not only because of its relative military and economic power in the post-Cold War system, but also because its international role and the political identity of the Americans are not as dependent on its foreign policy as is the case with the EU. A polity-in-the-making like the EU has constructed all its self-representation on its adherence to a European interpretation of the pillars of post-WWII international order (multilateralism, embedded liberalism, constitutionalism), the same pillars that the US had strategically wanted and sustained throughout the Cold War, but has now abandoned or pragmatically reinterpreted. What the G.W. Bush Administration has not taken into due consideration are the implications of a foreign policy which is disruptive not just for transatlantic relations but for the political and cultural cohesion of the US as well. The paper adopts a perspective which combines instrumental rationality with an ideational ontology.