The Trump administration also supported a permissive environment for other actors to disrupt Euro-Atlantic cooperation. In some cases, the United States was even a disruptor itself: in Ukraine, Trump attempted to coerce the government into undermining Biden’s credibility as a U.S. presidential candidate, while in Serbia and Kosovo, the United States sought alternative arrangements to the European Union (EU)–sponsored dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina to solve the bilateral relationship between the two countries.
In this environment, China, Russia, and Turkey have gained an influence in Eastern Europe that is commensurate neither with their own material investments in the region nor with the EU’s; the union and its member states together are by far the largest donor and investor in the Western Balkans.