The Atlantic Alliance: Diverging Interests, Converging Policies

‘Free riders aggravate me.’ 1 These words concerning America’s military allies were spoken not by President Donald Trump in 2025, but rather by his predecessor, Barack Obama, in 2016. Assessing Obama’s foreign policy, the then-head of the conservative Hudson Institute said: ‘the effectiveness of the alliance has been put into question by weakening European defence capabilities and a US president determined to shrink America’s footprint abroad. In short, the Atlantic Alliance is in crisis.’ 2 That ‘crisis’ - owing to the Obama administration’s determination to ‘pivot’ to East Asia - pales in comparison to the current fear over the Alliance’s health and durability precipitated by the second Trump administration’s sceptical view of NATO and coolness towards Europe.