Axel Heck develops an innovative research heuristic to uncover the social practices involved in the formation of the transatlantic power relationship. The empirical focus is on the crisis year of 1989, where a reconstructive analysis demonstrates how status and interpretation claims, as well as power positions, were negotiated and enforced among political actors in social practice. The research heuristic reveals the social practices of power and illustrates how the transatlantic power relationship in the crisis year of 1989 was shaped by both balance-of-power politics and claims of hegemony and dominance.