How Strong are Shared Values in the Transatlantic Relationship? 1

Abstract

Transatlantic relations are underpinned by common values. So prime ministers and presidents proclaim. This essay argues that they protest too much. It contends that a fog of rhetoric and generalisation obscures the fundamental fact that the ‘Atlantic community’ has dissipated; and that, surveying the terrain of transatlantic values, there is no prospect of its reconstitution.