Before his election, Joe Biden had launched the idea of an “alliance of democracies”, previously put forward by some of his advisers, notably Antony Blinken, the future American secretary of state. This idea aroused some scepticism in the United States as well as in other countries. In Europe, there’s a concern that it could increase divisions and limit room for discussions with authoritarian regimes; some even detect a whiff of the Cold War. This collides with other sensitive debates, not the least of which is that on Europe’s “strategic autonomy” and the raison d’être of the Atlantic alliance.