How the Democrats plan to revive the special relationship after Trump

Last weekend’s Munich Security Conference could perhaps best be summarised by two sentences in the 102-page report produced by a group of Western luminaries, politicians, military officials, and ex-statesmen (and stateswomen): After ‘two years in office, the Trump administration has triggered a reassessment of transatlantic relations in Europe,’ the report somberly declared. And ‘with President Trump under increasing domestic pressure and a national security team that is much closer to his views, there is reason to expect even more turmoil in the second part of his term.’

Before Donald Trump, the annual Munich Security Conference was an opportunity for the A-listers in the national security world to enjoy the German cuisine, congratulate one another for a job well done, and wax lyrical about the indispensability of NATO, the greatness of the European Union, and the special bond between the United States and Europe. After Donald Trump, the conference has been a far less placid affair; instead of polemics, diplomats and establishment-types are now actually engaging in conversations about whether the transatlantic bond can be saved or whether the liberal world order is a few Trumpian outbursts away from implosion.