Understanding The Post 9/11 Transatlantic Security Community

• Published in: Politikon: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science
• Main Author: Michael R. MacLeod
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: International Association for Political Science Students (IAPSS) 2006
• Subjects: Political science; J; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.22151/politikon.11.2; https://doaj.org/article/36e5e0c794494a99bdc6f47c460ff1ca

Is there an emerging fundamental divide between the United States and Europe in the post 9/11 world? This article examines the transatlantic relationship from a constructivist theoretical approach, emphasizing a security community underlying the North Atlantic region. Constructivists have emphasized how a transnational collective identity develops and builds stable expectations of peaceful relations amongst states, but they have not had much to say about how security communities become de-constructed, i.e. how they break down. To what extent do conflicts in values and norms undermine the collective identity? What I ask here is whether there is a widening difference in the European and American political-strategic cultures that is undermining the security community? My argument is, yes, there is, and the emerging post 9/11 transatlantic security community may look quite different from its predecessor.