Despite a favorable political environment in recent years on both sides of the Atlantic for close European-U.S. cooperation on international democracy support, only policy convergence has been achieved. Although Europe and the United States are at first glance natural partners in supporting democracy globally, since the end of the Cold War they have experienced significant oscillation between divergence and convergence in this domain. After a decade of strong convergence in the immediate post–Cold War years, they experienced a serious rift in the 2000s when then U.S. president George W. Bush advanced policies of forcible regime change as part of his larger “freedom agenda.” A return to significant alignment during the years of Barack Obama’s presidency was replaced by serious divergence after Donald Trump gained the White House and threw core elements of U.S. democracy policy into disarray. The arrival of Joe Biden to the U.S. presidency in 2021 opened the door to a potential new convergence given the strong emphasis from Biden and his foreign policy team both on making democracy and human rights a centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy and on rebuilding alliances with America’s democratic friends and partners. How has this promise worked out in practice?
