Diplomacy and International Politics

On March 31,  the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship and the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies hosted a discussion with Wolfgang Ischinger, former Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Joseph S. Nye Jr., Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, and Daniela Schwarzer, Executive Director for Europe and Eurasia at the Open Society Foundations, on how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as the brutality of its action has caused an unexpected reversal of Germany’s long time security policy and led to strong reactions in the rest of Europe, NATO, and the posture of the Biden administration. The seminar examined the dimensions and consequences of these developments for the future of the EU and the West. Karl Kaiser, Senior Fellow at the Project on Europe, moderated.

On November 20, the Future of Diplomacy Project's Fisher Family Fellow, Ambassador Peter Wittig, hosted a virtual study group that explored the key question of how much restoration of the old Western order is possible and desirable under a Biden presidency and how much re-invention is necessary to re-energize the transatlantic partnership.

Ambassador Peter Wittig is a five-time Ambassador. He served in Spain, at the UN, in Lebanon and Cyprus before working in the cabinet of two Foreign Secretaries at headquarters. Most recently he was the German Ambassador at the United Nations in New York (2009 - 2014) representing his country in the Security Council, in Washington (2014 - 2018) and in the United Kingdom (2018 - 2020).

American democracy is facing pressure from all sides: For months, there have been partly violent protests against systemic racism and police violence of the “Black Lives Matter” movement. The COVID pandemic has already claimed over 200,000 lives and has extreme economic consequences. Coupled with a polarized media landscape and the growing influence of social media, the pandemic has further exposed deep social divisions along ideological, economic and ethnic fault lines. In addition, the Trump administration is stepping up its escalatory description of the integrity of the American electoral system - what some consider to be a rigid electoral and party system in need of reform. How will the social conflicts affect the understanding of (American) democracy? How is the political establishment contributing to alienation from the Constitution?

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.

In addition to her recent article, the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship's Fellow Amanda Sloat explained the constitutional effects of Brexit for the United Kingdom in a short video for the Brookings Institution.