Diplomacy and International Politics

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).

The Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship (PETR) is looking for a new research assistant to support programming and research focused on increasing the teaching of American-European relations at HKS.

The Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship (PETR) and the Asia Center will be hosting a new event series over the course of the Fall and Spring semesters of the 2019-2020 academic year, focusing on China's rise and its implications on the transatlantic relationship.

Former career Ambassador Victoria Nuland unwinds the tangle of issues around Russia, Ukraine, and Syria.

Donald Trump’s preposterous fixation with buying Greenland, initially treated as a distraction by American media and a joke by the Danish government, became less amusing Tuesday night when the president declared that he would be canceling his planned diplomatic trip to Denmark in retaliation. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had told the White House, that Greenland, an autonomous territory in the Arctic, wasn’t Denmark’s to sell.

President Trump is pushing Boris Johnson, the incoming prime minister of Britain, toward a hard break with the European Union. But Mr. Johnson could be constrained.

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.

Unlike the Iraq war of 2003 when Europe was split in its support of the US, all of Europe now disagrees with the American approach to Iran. If the US were to use military force, there would be no European support and the sad likelihood of unifying Europe on an anti-American basis.

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.