Transatlantic Relations

Europe's World, Summer 2009

The Summer issue (12) of the Europe-wide policy journal “Europe’s World” provides the text of Pertti Joenniemi’s DIIS Working Paper (2009: 11) in its ‘think tank’-section.
The paper probes the bonds of association between Europe and America and in particular the tensions that have been there over the recent years.

It notes that research in the field of international relations has encountered difficulties in addressing these issues and the argument pursued is that deep down these problems pertain to theory. Thus, the aim of the paper is one of trying to break some new ground for theorization it argues that the Realist, Liberal and Constructivist accounts have so far come up short in terms of providing up-to-date and broadly acceptable answers. With the dominant theories focusing largely on either external enmity or internal homogeneity, difference internal to the relationship has too easily been conceptualized as destabilizing and seen as representing a rupture. In contrast, the argument is that while elements of enmity and homogeneity are important, communities such as the Atlantic one are also critically brought together by their internal differences. The contribution then aims, in view of the difference-based dynamics at play and foundational for the Atlantic communality, to complement and provide a corrective to the more established theorization of that togetherness.

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