In his new work, “Who controls who?”, the historian dissects the new global power dynamics.
“You observe a ‘transatlantic schism’, a ‘change of era’ which you say you became aware of in February 2025, notably by attending J.D. Vance’s speech, the American vice-president, in Munich, very scathing against European democracy… How would you describe this schism?”
The transatlantic relationship is multifaceted. Political, commercial, military, cultural … This complexity means we can’t really talk about a rupture, but about a schism in terms of values, ideology. There was first a strategy of prostration by a certain number of European economic or political actors between the re-election of Donald Trump in November 2024, and the early months of his new administration starting in 2025. This almost admiring phase was short-lived: the turnaround began as early as April 2025, just three months after Donald Trump’s inauguration, with the start of his trade war.
This distancing will only continue to intensify, with the twelve-day war in Iran, Donald Trump’s adoption of a Putin-like interpretation of the war in Ukraine, the Greenland affair which shows how little he values his European allies, the capture of Maduro in Venezuela, a military success but a completely unilateral and legally questionable decision, the campaign launched in Iran on February 28th…
“Some analysts think we are too obsessed with Donald Trump and forgetting to see that he embodies what many Americans think about Europeans… “
Americans are not monolithic, but the fact is that Donald Trump was elected and re-elected. Americans know very well who they elected in 2024. This vote reflects a deep change in the trajectory of the United States. Not so much towards isolationism, but towards unilateralism. American authorities tell us: “We are autonomous in terms of energy, we have two oceanic facades, we have the world’s largest economy, the largest manufacturing economy. So, we have the possibility to change the rules of the system.” Regarding the relationship with Europeans, Trump bluntly affirms what several American presidents have thought for the past twenty years: you Europeans do not think enough for your defense and security. He points out a fundamental contradiction: how is it that 500 million relatively prosperous Europeans still rely on 380 million Americans to face 140 million aging Russians?
“Donald Trump has been juggling multiple fronts for a year now, but what political successes?”
His main success, at this stage, is saturating our media agenda. The paradox is that we’re in a moment of transatlantic schism in terms of ideology, maybe even in theological terms – Donald Trump and J.D. Vance openly attacking the Pope – but with strong media convergence. European and American public spaces are closer than ever. The Epstein case is a striking example. Donald Trump continues to overshadow, through his daily statements, this media space, which is less globalized than “transatlantic.”
“How do you explain his international activism when he promised to end all foreign wars in the campaign?”
He gives the impression of being convinced that he can, through his presumed genius, make peace, even through war. There is another, more structural factor: the extraordinarily powerful American military power. For example, it allows them to eliminate the supreme leader on the first day of an operation in Iran. Such a tool gives American presidents, not just Trump, the feeling that the use of force allows them to redesign the international scene as they see fit. However, this is not happening as he imagined, because he does not find a political translation for his military victories.
“Military gains without a lasting political solution, isn’t this also the problem of Benjamin Netanyahu, in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran…?”
Read the rest of the article on the Sud Ouest website.
