Diplomacy and International Politics

The following is an event write-up about the recent Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship (PETR) seminar on “France’s Global Role in a Changing World Order” co-moderated by Natalie Colbert, Executive Director of the Belfer Center, and Svenja Kirsch, Fellow with PETR, on April 19, 2023.

From Afghanistan to the AUKUS alliance, the brief honeymoon between the European Union and U.S. President Joe Biden’s America looks to be over. But it’s important to remember, after the overinflated optimism that followed the end of the Trump years, that transatlantic relations have always had their frictions and frustrations, their ups and their downs — and we’re ready for a rebound once again.

In the wake of the United States’ shambolic withdrawal from Afghanistan, European leaders have done little to conceal their frustration with the U.S. president’s foreign policy.

Please join the Future of Diplomacy Project's Fisher Family Fellow, Ambassador Peter Wittig, for a virtual study group that explores how and to what extent the first 100 days of the Biden presidency has reset the transatlantic partnership.

What will Angela Merkel and Joe Biden discuss during the Chancellor's visit to the USA? Listen in for more. [translated from German; interview in German]

Chancellor Merkel visits the White House in what is likely to be her last such meeting after 16 years in power. U.S.-German relations have improved since the Trump era, but there are differences.

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany will meet President Biden for talks at the White House during what will most likely be her final trip to Washington before leaving office.

What is the significance of Angela Merkel’s upcoming White House for the future of U.S.-German relations? Cathryn Clüver and Jeff Rathke join Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Jim Townsend to discuss the most important aspects of the July 15 meeting and how the U.S. and Germany can work together on a range of issues going forward.

President Joe Biden heads to Europe this week for his first foreign trip as president, intent on soldering back together the trans-Atlantic ties that were splintered by his predecessor.

But the Biden administration’s ability to renew Europeans’ faith in the long-term U.S. commitment to internationalism and the post-World War II democratic order is constrained by European concerns about recent domestic events, notably the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol and Republican efforts to sow doubt about the integrity of elections and to restrict access to the ballot.

President Biden is likely to receive a warm welcome from European leaders when he arrives in the United Kingdom on Wednesday to begin a seven-day trip to three countries, and it’s no secret why.

Unlike his predecessor, Biden is immediately familiar to most of his European Union counterparts and deeply committed to the transatlantic alliance that has been a pillar of the postwar democratic order for seven decades. He doesn’t consider NATO “obsolete.” Nor does he publicly berate allied leaders, while embracing Russian President Vladimir Putin, perhaps the biggest threat to European stability.

But not being Donald Trump is the easy part.