Barack Obama’s “Pivot to Asia” and the Issue of Strengthening Transatlantic Relations

The study aims to analyse the impact that Barack Obama’s “pivot to Asia” had on the development of transatlantic relations. The article traces the premises of such a “pivot” on the part of the USA, as well as the European Union’s reaction to it. Moreover, the paper examines difference in military-political approaches of the European Union and the USA to the Southeast Asian Region. The study is novel as, despite the fact that there are many works devoted to studying transatlantic relations, there has been no research that would analyse their development from the perspective of forming relations with another region. Furthermore, a wide range of new foreign sources and references will be introduced into the Russian scientific discourse. The results prove that the Southeast Asian Region holds both economic and military-political interests for the USA, whereas the European Union considers the region from the geo-economic point of view. Differences in the approaches adopted by the European Union and the USA may further divide the NATO due to progressively diverging military-political goals of the European and the American parts of the alliance.