Gerda Jakštaitė, Liudas Zdanavičius. Pandemic – a missed chance for transatlantic relations

While countries on both sides of the Atlantic were concerned with instability in the Middle East, hybrid threats, strengthened NATO, increased military budgets, an enemy appeared unexpectedly and it was not one the transatlantic countries’ defence doctrines were oriented toward – handling the spread of COVID-19 turned out more difficult than expected. 140 countries have reported COVID-19 cases, more than 80 of them have confirmed clusters of infections. The COVID-19 pandemic is already being called the third largest shock of this decade (following 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis).