Europeans have something to cheer at last. For years they felt unloved by the Americans. George W. Bush’s divide-and-rule (remember Old versus New Europe) was followed by Barack Obama’s reinvention of the US as a Pacific power. What about us, these old allies wailed when Mr Obama unveiled the US pivot to Asia? Well, Europe is now promised powerful friends at presidential court.
Mr Obama’s nominations of John Kerry to the state department and Chuck Hagel to the Pentagon would fill these two top posts with politicians that Europeans should clamour to do business with. They hail from a generation with Atlanticism in their blood: Americans whose worldview was shaped by the importance of the alliance in fighting the cold war.
They are staunch supporters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the EU. Mr Hagel chaired the Atlantic Council, the Washington think-tank committed to sustaining transatlantic ties. Both nominees are stalwarts of the Munich Conference on Security Policy.