Economics & Global Affairs

Whereas the Trump administration worked effectively with Europe in some areas, including energy security and law enforcement, the U.S-EU relationship disintegrated in many other areas, above all in trade following U.S. tariffs on imports of aluminum and steel and threats to restrict car imports. While some members of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party have appreciated President Trump’s endorsement of Brexit, the core interests of the United Kingdom (including free trade, the fight against climate change and defense of multilateral institutions) diverge from those of the Trump administration.

The next U.S. administration will face the challenge of re-engaging with Europe on matters of joint concern, not only on climate and Iran but also on concluding a trade agreement, resolving outstanding economic disputes and leading efforts to reform the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) and the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) convened a strategy group of experts and former government officials from the United States and Europe over the past year to discuss the crisis in the transatlantic relationship and to propose a strategy to revive and strengthen it.

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.

In recent years the crisis of the transatlantic relationship and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has become a common theme in media, and various scholars have frequently questioned the futures of both entities. Not only are the new sovereigntist and populist trends within the NATO members calling the relevance of the transatlantic relationship into question, but some have found a reason to identify a crisis in the transatlantic relationship from the rise of global actors and the emergence of China as a great power in particular. China’s economic recovery after its “century of humiliation” is reshaping the international geopolitics and shifting the economic epicenter of the world from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 

NPR's David Greene talks to Amanda Sloat of the Brookings Institution, and David Rennie of The Economist magazine, about the global standing of the U.S. The G-7 meetings in France wrap up Monday.

The man whose childhood dream was becoming “world king” and whose charismatic leadership energized the Brexit campaign has become Britain’s new prime minister. On July 24, Boris Johnson replaced Theresa May as leader of the Conservative Party and assumed the country’s top job. Following a campaign premised on delivering Brexit “do or die” by Halloween and with only 99 days until the departure deadline, Johnson wasted no time appointing a pro-Leave cabinet. Given EU resistance to renegotiating the withdrawal agreement and a divided British Parliament, odds are increasing for a no-deal Brexit or a general election.

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) event series, Nicholas Burns, Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations, moderated a panel discussion on Brexit and its implications for Ireland featuring H.E. Daniel Mulhall, Ambassador of Ireland to the United States of America; Harriet Cross, British Consul General to New England; Dr. Katy Hayward, 2019 Eisenhower Fellow, Senior Fellow, ‘UK in a Changing Europe’ Initiative and Reader in Sociology at Queen’s University Belfast; and Dr. Kathleen O’Toole, Former Boston Police Commissioner and member of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland on May 6th, 2019.

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.

When contemplating Brexit, particularly a ”hard” Brexit without agreements with the EU, the outside world is deeply puzzled how Britain could produce such a calamitous act of self-harm, severely hurting its economy, undermining its international standing, and possibly threatening its national integrity. While Brexit will hurt the EU economically, it will not undermine the EU’s global role as the world’s second largest economy. Brexit has also had some unexpected effects that strengthen the EU.