Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship

Harvard Kennedy School Study Group led by Dr. Karen Donfried, Belfer Center Senior Fellow

Wednesdays, 4:30-6:00pm

Over the course of six sessions, a study group, led by Dr. Karen Donfried, will examine key foreign policy debates flowing from Russia’s war against Ukraine. The objective is to provide a deeper understanding of the geopolitics of the war in Ukraine and the implications for U.S. interests.

Eligibility requirements: Harvard graduate and post-graduate students, who can attend all six sessions. We will seek to accommodate several undergraduates. Applicants with a strong interest in foreign affairs are encouraged to apply. No specific experience or first-hand knowledge of the issues is required. 

• Apply online through this link by 12:00 PM on Tuesday, February 20, 2024. Late applications will not be considered.

Please join the Harvard Kennedy School Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship for a seminar with Édouard Philippe, former Prime Minister of France, to discuss France's role in the world and Europe's current security landscape. France still aims to recover its « grandeur », regularly examining its role and influence. It's looking to find its place within the EU and questions the EU's ability to be a real power on the international scene. How can France and the EU defend their role in a broken and imbalanced world divided into spheres of influence? From China to Turkey, authoritarian regimes have grown, asserting their way to build stability and sometimes to achieve prosperity, threatening multilateralism. How can transatlantic relationship remain a strong pillar of global security? 

This conversation will be co-moderated by Natalie Colbert, Executive Director of the Belfer Center, and Svenja Kirsch, Fellow with the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship.

Please note: In person registration is now at capacity. Virtual registration is still open.

Over the last two decades, the EU has faced a myriad of crises. During the 2010s, it experienced the sovereign debt and migration crises. During the 2020s, the pandemic and the Russian aggression against Ukraine have confronted the Union with a new set of challenges. While the 2010s crises were averted through monetary policy and an established social structure, the 2020s crises have called the social structure itself into question. In particular, the Russian war is affecting the EU’s consensus on major strategies, such as the growth model and the security model. This seminar will assess critical questions on how Brussels is dealing with the consequences of the pandemic and the war to manage these crises successfully.

This event is part of the Center for European Studies' European Union Seminar and is co-sponsored by the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship.

Speaker

• Sergio Fabbrini– Dean, Political Science Department; Professor of Political Science and International Relations, LUISS Guido Carli
• Metin Hakverdi - Member of the Bundestag, Federal Republic of Germany; Board Member, Atlantik-Brücke; John F. Kennedy Memorial Policy Fellow, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University

Chairs 

• Karl Kaiser – Fellow, Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship, Harvard Kennedy School; Seminar Co-chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
• Nicolas Prevelakis – Associate Senior Lecturer on Social Studies & Assistant Director of Curricular Development, Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University; Seminar Co-chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University

Please join the Belfer Center's Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship and the Future of Diplomacy Project for a discussion with Mr. Andrew Greenough, Desk Officer at the U.S. Department of State's Office of Eastern European Affairs. Mr. Greenough serves in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs where he focuses on Moldova and the regional consequences of Russia’s war against Ukraine.  Prior to joining the office in 2021, he served at the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest, Romania, where he covered cybersecurity, emerging technology, and economic cooperation under the U.S.-Romania Strategic Partnership.  A career Foreign Service Officer, he previously served at the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador, El Salvador.  Before joining the Foreign Service, he worked on the staff of Representative Joseph Kennedy III (MA-04) in the U.S. House of Representatives.  He is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Russia's aggression towards Ukraine has continued, profound consequences for European affairs and international politics. Daniela Schwarzer and Jolyon Howorth will examine the war’s impact on the European Union’s internal politics as it balances the divergent positions of member states. They will also discuss the foreign policy and security implications and challenges to transatlantic relations. 

This event is part of the Center for European Studies' European Union Seminar and is co-sponsored by the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship.

Speakers

• Jolyon Howorth – Jean Monnet Professor ad personam & Professor Emeritus of European Politics, University of Bath; Local Affiliate, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
• Daniela Schwarzer – Pierre Keller Visiting Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School ; Executive Director for Europe and Eurasia, Open Society Foundations

Chairs 

• Karl Kaiser – Fellow, Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship, Harvard Kennedy School; Seminar Co-chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
• Vivien A. Schmidt – Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration and Professor of International Relations and Political Science, Boston University; Local Affiliate & Seminar Co-chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University

Please join the Belfer Center’s Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship and Defense Project for a seminar on the current European security landscape with Janne Kuusela, Defense Policy Director of Finland. Mr. Kuusela will discuss Finland’s recent NATO bid, security challenges for Northern Europe, the future of European defense cooperation and its implications for the transatlantic relationship. Professor Eric Rosenbach, co-Director of the Belfer Center, will moderate the discussion.

This event will be hybrid.

Please join the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship and the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies for 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 will examine 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, will moderate.

This event is part of the Center for European Studies' European Union Seminar series.

Please join the Project on Europe for a post-COP 26 discussion about how European integration of a climate change agenda is now at the very center of its political project. Europe is exiting almost two decades of existential crisis during which it lost its narrative: it no longer had a compelling story to tell. It has now found it once again. Today, a green Europe represents a normative vision, an economic growth strategy, as well as a route to a political Union: it promises to be the new narrative to revive the European project. Precisely because it is so existential for the future of Europe, getting both the story and the practice right is crucial. This is a tall order.

The breadth and depth of change that comes with this transition is unlike anything we have seen before. Preparing and acting both on the energy transition and on its socio-economic and political consequences is essential. The 2021 energy price spike is only a first warning. Unless this is done, the EU’s vision will either fail to translate into action, or inadvertently unleash social, economic and political backlashes that could come biting back at the Union.

Europe, as a climate leader in the transition, is being watched closely by others. Its success or failure in handling the transition and thus also its social, economic and political consequences will affect other transition paths, beginning with the United States.

Women in Defense, Diplomacy, and Development is co-sponsoring this event.

Since Henrik Enderlein tragically passed away on 27 May 2021, at the age of 46, people from across Europe and America have commemorated the life and work of this brilliant economist and thought-leader on economic policy-making, financial crises and fiscal federalism. Henrik Enderlein embodied the best of intellectual exchanges in Europe and America, as an alumnus of Sciences Po, former Pierre Keller Visiting Professor at Harvard, President of the Hertie School of Governance as well as Director of the Jacques Delors Center Berlin.
 
Please join the Harvard Kennedy School’s Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship, as well as the French and German Ambassadors to the U.S., for a discussion on “A More Perfect Economic Union – A Transatlantic Tribute to Henrik Enderlein” on Wednesday, October 6 from 8:30-10:00 am ET with leading figures from Harvard, Sciences Po, the Hertie School, and the Jacques Delors Institute. Further details can be found below.
 

The U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan has spurred European anxiety and frustration and also reignited a long-standing debate over European strategic autonomy, notably in the field of security and defence. Additionally, the recent historic trilateral security pact between the UK, U.S. and Australia in the Asia-Pacific (AUKUS) and its first major initiative of delivering a nuclear-powered submarine fleet has led to France recalling its ambassador to the United States in protest.

Please join the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship for a seminar with Nathalie Tocci, Pierre Keller Visiting Professor, Joe Nye, University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus, and moderated by Karl Kaiser, Fellow with the Project on Europe, to discuss the state of the relationship between Europe and the Biden administration given these challenges, what lies behind the European critique of U.S. foreign policy, and the implications this might have on a transatlantic approach to China. The discussion will also explore whether this moment represents a genuine turning point in European ambitions to assume greater responsibility and risk on security and defence, the obstacles that persist, and the future of the transatlantic partnership.