Transatlantic strains and strategic realities: Beyond rhetoric to resilience and renovation

Transatlantic alliance is no longer a monolith of shared policy and seamless coordination. It has become a forum of competing strategic impulses.

- DEAN BAXENDALE

‘The 2026 Munich Security Conference underscored a truth that Western policymakers must now acknowledge: the transatlantic alliance is no longer a monolith of shared policy and seamless coordination. It has become a forum of competing strategic impulses, with the United States urging adaptation to its evolving priorities and European capitals asserting a growing strategic autonomy born of necessity rather than ideology. In last week’s article I explained how the Munich Security Conference's wrecking ball analogy probably over dramatized the situation and while it might be strategic, the MSC like other institutions or think tanks needs to take much bolder action in taking on

our adversaries who while showing polite niceties in salons are ruthlessly planning for Europe and North America’s demise. India has its own issues—a foot in various camps—and has also rejected much of Washington’s posture towards them purchasing Russian sanctioned oil.

‘The 2026 Munich Security Conference underscored a truth that Western policymakers must now acknowledge: the transatlantic alliance is no longer a monolith of shared policy and seamless coordination. It has become a forum of competing strategic impulses, with the United States urging adaptation to its evolving priorities and European capitals asserting a growing strategicautonomy born of necessity rather than ideology.