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European leaders are right to be optimistic about what a President Biden could mean. Still, supporters of the transatlantic partnership should make efforts to engage a wider swath of Americans to ensure the relationship’s health for many administrations to come.

The US should look to Cold War legislation to stand with the victims of totalitarianism

Until recently, Russian and Chinese influence across Europe generally reflected their distinct strategic aims. But their interests increasingly converge. Common to both Vladimir Putin’s and Xi Jinping’s strategies is the decoupling of the United States and Europe. Leaders on both sides of the Atlantic will have to act in concert – and fast – to forestall an even greater corrosion of the democratic norms that have kept the peace – or helped restore it, in the case of the wars in the former Yugoslavia – for three-quarters of a century.

In the coming decades, sub-Saharan Africa will grow increasingly important to both the U.S. and Europe. Its growing population and proximity to Europe make that fact undeniable. Chinese political and economic inroads may be irreversible. Yet, by working together, the U.S. and Europe do have the ability to create the space for African governments and their people to have a viable alternative strategic direction. Such an undertaking not only would benefit Africa, but would put a much-needed item of converging interest on the transatlantic agenda.

The Western Balkans was thrown into an existential political crisis after France blocked Albania’s and North Macedonia’s negotiations for European Union accession late last year. The significance of this hold on EU expansion should not be underestimated. Membership in the bloc was the overarching social and political goal of the region’s six countries for almost two decades. The resultant vacuum is being filled by authoritarian adversaries. Building on Britain’s recent re-engagement in the region, the time is now for a new U.S.-U.K. partnership in the Western Balkans.