The UN Charter focuses on states as the central actors in the international system, defining as a multilateral action when three nation-states cooperate in a field of common interest. Today, nation-states are increasingly paralysed into inaction due to political divisions or great power rivalries. Hence, they are failing to effectively utilise collective action. Subnational entities are stepping into this vacuum to deliver on core functions embedded in the UN Charter, redefining effective collaboration on a transnational scale – what we call micro-multilateralism. Cities have emerged as particularly skilful champions of micro-multilateralism, even though their role as independent actors is not specifically addressed by the UN Charter. With 70 per cent of the world’s population projected to be urban by 2050, cities are now effectively tackling transnational issues once the prerogative of states.

On Monday September 26th,  The Right Honourable John Bercow, MP Speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom gave a public address at the Harvard Kennedy School Forum, followed by a Q&A moderated by Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook, Executive Director of the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship.

Cathryn Cluver Ashbrook, Harvard Kennedy School, James Politi, Financial Times, and Steven Ricchiuto, Mizuho Securities, join 'The Exchange' to discuss what a declining German economy signals about the global economy.

As part of the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship’s (PETR) 2019 European Election event series, Muriel Rouyer, Adjunct Professor of Public Policy and Robert N. Stavins, A.J. Meyer Professor of Energy & Economic Development, discussed transatlantic advances in environmental policy, as well as the role the issue of climate change would play in the EU parliament vote taking place on May 23-26, in a conversation with Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook, Executive Director of PETR on April 30th, 2019.

President Donald Trump was the 2019 commencement speaker at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Thursday. “In all things and ways, we are putting America first, and it’s about time,” Trump told the graduating class of just under 1,000 cadets. “And we are restoring the fundamental principle that our first obligation and highest loyalty is to the American citizen. No longer will we sacrifice America’s interests to any foreign power. We don’t do that anymore.” Across the country at Harvard University, new graduates heard a very different message on commencement day.

Germany's Angela Merkel gave the commencement address at Harvard on Thursday. In the era of Trump and "America first," Merkel has been seen as a forceful voice for shared western values of democracy, human rights and multilateralism. But Merkel is stepping off the global stage in 2021. The World's Matthew Bell reports.

In word portraits, those who know the German chancellor, Harvard’s Commencement speaker, explain her rise to longtime prominence

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace hosted a discussion on the impact of the European Parliament election on issues like migration, trade, and transatlantic relations.

On April 12th, 2019, Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook discussed Brexit and the future of the European Union with with Anand Menon, Director of the UK in a Changing Europe initiative and Grégoire Gathem, Senior Legal Counsel at Fusion for Energy at the International Women's Forum in Barcelona, Spain. They discussed the origin and root causes of Brexit, the vision for Europe going forward, the challenges faced by Europe both internally with regards to the wave of populism, and externally from the tariffs that the United States has recently imposed on Europe, and the lack of support the U.S. President has shown for NATO.