Make no mistake about it. Most NATO and European Union (EU) officials breathed a sigh of relief when it became clear that Joe Biden would become the next president of the United States of America (USA).
And while many now hope that the "rules-based order" championed by both Washington and Brussels for so long will return when it comes to trade issues or environmental protection, they know that not everything will be the same, even and if the next US president seems more inclined to multilateralism.
Almost all European officials weighing in on the election results said similar things about what they expected to change with the new US president: "tone" and "style", followed by "confidence in the process".
It may not sound like much, but for slow-moving bureaucratic political institutions like the EU and NATO, these things really matter.
Their emphasis on consensus building, discussion and negotiation was ill-suited to President Donald Trump's disruptive foreign policy and frequent use of Twitter diplomacy.
And while both institutions have survived the last four years, officials point to the damage done, but also to problems that remain unresolved and could continue to fester beneath the surface.
NATO was the hardest hit of the two. President Trump first declared the military organization obsolete, called allies who did not spend two percent of their national GDP on defense "delinquent," and even threatened to withdraw the United States from the organization entirely.
Still, according to one senior NATO official, the key issue was that the US president was not too keen on Article 5, the alliance's mutual defense clause.
As he said, "The whole point of NATO is for people to believe that, let's say, Estonia is attacked, others, including the USA, will immediately help. If that belief does not exist, NATO does not exist."
With Biden, there is some hope that this belief will return.
But there is also an acknowledgment among European NATO officials that some things in the Alliance have improved recently.
Defense spending in 2020 rose 19 percent from 2016 - perhaps due to pressure from Washington, the United States deployed forces to border states in Europe and played a crucial role in some of the largest military exercises since the Cold War.
President-elect Biden will continue working to get Europeans to spend more, even though many of them may not be able to do so due to the coronavirus pandemic. This could still lead to additional tensions.
Like Trump, Biden will contend with Turkey, which, according to many I spoke with, appears to be "fighting with everyone in the alliance." How Biden will approach the "Ankara issue" seems to be anyone's guess, but he has to approach it somehow.
With both the EU and NATO, one thing is almost certain: Germany and the United Kingdom will remain key players for the United States.
By the time Biden enters the White House, the UK will either leave the EU's single market and customs union with a trade deal or end up without one, potentially creating another economic and political crisis in early 2021.
Regardless, people in EU circles believe that Biden will have a hard time dealing with Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The next president is not a fan of Brexit, unlike his predecessor. And even less if it undermines the Good Friday Agreement, which paved the way for peace in Northern Ireland. For someone as immensely proud of his Irish heritage as Biden, this issue is more than just political.
There is more hope in NATO, however, with people alluding to a "special relationship" between London and Washington that remains strong on military and security issues, creating an engine that could make a future NATO even tougher on Russia, leaving doors open to new members, as well as to entice other members to continue spending despite a potential economic downturn.
And Germany, more inclined than anyone else towards international institutions and multilateral affairs, will hope that Biden will quickly recommit himself to the WTO (World Trade Organization), WHO (World Health Organization), the Paris Climate Pact, and perhaps even the Iran deal. Bilaterally, they are betting that the Democrat can reverse Trump's decision to withdraw thousands of US troops from Germany.
But there are other issues that need to be addressed. To begin with, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will step down after 16 years, ahead of the German elections in the fall of 2021, and it is still not clear who will replace her in the CDU party and what kind of coalition will emerge after the vote.
There will remain a host of questions about Berlin that vexed the previous White House administration. Why does Nordstream 2 keep going? Why isn't Germany tougher on Moscow? And is it really unable to step forward militarily despite its economic strength?
But perhaps the biggest question that remains for Germany, as well as Europe, will be where they stand when it comes to China.
Just like Trump, Biden knows that Beijing is a major strategic competitor for America. And like his predecessor, he is likely to ask the Europeans whose side they are on.
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