Diplomacy and International Politics

Ambassador Nicholas Burns, former top official and ambassador at the State Department, joins Andrea Mitchell today ahead of President Biden's visit to the State Department where he plans to deliver a speech laying out his immediate foreign policy agenda. Amb. Burns says. "I think President Biden's visit to the State Department today is a powerful signal of his support for the United States building up its capacity in diplomacy which we didn't see under four years of Donald Trump."

Storming the Capitol, shaking democracy - how dangerous are the days ahead of the transition of power for the United States? And even if Trump leaves the Oval Office, will he remain an eternal divider? Does the poison of his lies continue to have an effect in America, and does it perhaps continue to serve as a model for populists abroad? [translated from German, interview in German]

The presidency of Donald Trump has left such a wretched stench in Europe that it's hard to see how, even in four years, Joe Biden could possibly get America's most important alliance back on track.

Joe Biden has been elected the next President of the United States, and a sigh of relief is audible even from Germany. But will the relationship between the two countries improve substantially? [translated from German]

Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook, Executive Director of the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship, commented on President-elect Joe Biden's nominations in foreign policy and national security. (Beginning at 23:00 mark. Article in German)

WorldBoston’s annual State of the State Department is a high-level event serving as an annual occasion to assess the strength of a critical instrument in the pursuit of U.S. national interest, within a policy context. In addition to critically evaluating the current state of the State Department, we look at U.S. diplomacy through the lens of the transatlantic relationship. Ambassador Nicholas Burns is joined by E.U. Ambassador to the U.S. Stavros Lambrinidis to discuss the dynamic between the State Department and transatlantic diplomacy.

On November 12, 2020, the Future of Diplomacy Project hosted a discussion with Dame Karen Pierce, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the United States about the major foreign policy challenges facing the UK and the US after the 2020 election, including climate, free trade and international leadership in a seminar moderated by Faculty Chair, Nicholas Burns.

On October 16,  the Future of Diplomacy Project hosted a discussion with two of America's most impressive political journalists, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, about their book, the definitive biography of legendary White House chief of staff and secretary of state James A. Baker III: the man who ran Washington when Washington ran the world. Faculty Chair, Nicholas Burns, moderated the discussion. 

Over the past few years, China’s rise has become a top priority in Washington and in many European capitals—and a big-ticket item on the wider transatlantic agenda. However, the United States and Europe have so far not been able to capitalize on this convergence by building anything resembling a coherent agenda to address jointly shared challenges from China. This task will be among the most pressing on the transatlantic agenda over the next four years. 

Few nations elicit such fatalism among American policymakers and analysts as Vladimir Putin’s Russia. For some, the country is an irredeemable pariah state, responsive only to harsh punishment and containment. Others see a wronged and resurgent great power that deserves more accommodation. Perspectives vary by the day, the issue, and the political party. Across the board, however, resignation has set in about the state of U.S.-Russian relations, and Americans have lost confidence in their own ability to change the game.