This volume offers an empirical and conceptual analysis of German-American relations in the 21st century, and highlights the serious and perhaps unprecedented challenges the two countries face at present. It was originally published as a special issue of the journal German Politics.

Klaus Larres is Richard M. Krasno Distinguished Professor of History and International Affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. He is Senior Fellow in the Center of Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University/School of Advanced International Studied (SAIS), Washington, DC, USA and a Visiting Professor at Schwarzman College/Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. He also serves as a Counselor and Senior Foreign Policy Adviser at the German Embassy in Beijing, China. His research focuses on: relations among the USA-Europe-China, US foreign policy and transatlantic relations and the Cold War and the politics of Winston Churchill.

Ruth Wittlinger is Associate Professor in the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University, UK. She has published extensively on memory and identity in post-unification Germany and Europe. She is author of German National Identity in the Twenty-First Century. In 2017, she was awarded a Lady Davis Visiting Professorship at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

Preface 1. Introduction: A Fragile Friendship: German-American Relations in the Twenty-First Century 2. The 2003 Iraq War as a Turning Point in German-American Relations: Political Leadership and Alliance Cohesion 3. The End of Memory? German-American Relations under Donald Trump 4. Angela Merkel and Donald Trump - Values, Interests, and the Future of the West 5. The Global Financial Crisis and the Euro Crisis as Contentious Issues in German-American Relations 6. Different Approaches to Russia: The German-American-Russian Strategic Triangle 7. Trading Places: Securitising Refugee and Asylum Policies in Germany and the United States 8. More Similar Than Different: Of Checks, Balances, and German and American Government Responses to International Terrorism