Prior to the elections, the EUISS asked experts from EU Centers of Excellence in the United States to identify the most important domestic or foreign policy issues that are set to shape transatlantic relations in the coming years. Their messages to leaders and policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic are clear.
Use our interactive map in order to see the issues of the 2012 presidential election campaign that authors from EU Centers of Excellence across the USA perceive to be shaping future American policies and transatlantic relations.
The EU region is by far the most important economic partner for the United States and vice versa. Add to that the role that European nations play as key international allies, both bilaterally and through NATO, one conclusion emerges; Europe matters.
Economic growth and job creation are clearly the keys to a successful presidency for either candidate. What is also clear, however, is that successful economic growth cannot be achieved without the same positive economic trends occurring in Europe.
Regardless of who wins the upcoming election, US and EU officials must deal with the most salient issue of this generation — the demographic transformations which will force a reconfiguration of their respective social welfare systems.
Immigration is causing dramatic changes to the makeup of societies on both sides of the Atlantic. But with the ethnic composition of both populations fundamentally transformed, will Europe and the US retain their strong ties?
For the past four years, the United States has been developing a new approach to foreign policy, becoming more like the kind of transatlantic partner that Europe has long yearned for. Yet could this progress be undone by a Romney victory?
Tackling climate change is one of the main points on the global political agenda. Despite this fact, a large expectations gap is likely to remain, regardless of who wins the election, between the EU positions and the domestic programmes and international commitments of the US.
In the face of an increasingly multipolar international order, Europe and the US must work together to maintain their interests, influence, and security. But in a world where wielding hard power is no longer enough, perhaps the US has something to learn from the EU’s foreign policy model?
Economic recovery, job creation and financial interdependence across the Atlantic deserve greater attention. Ronald Linden (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) observes that despite the ‘Europe bashing’ in the United States, the transatlantic partners are bound together by economics: trade, goods and services and foreign direct investment which collectively provide millions of jobs across both continents. This leads Brandy Joliff (Boulder, Colorado) to conclude that full-scale economic recovery is not possible if the focus is only on the US economy, with Europe’s recovery arguably equally as vital and just as likely to influence both the current election and the term of either candidate.
The second discussion addresses major domestic trends in the United States and their implications for the future of transatlantic cooperation. Elizabeth Covington and Myra Marx Ferree (Madison, Wisconsin) point to the demographic shifts as ‘the most transformative issue of this generation’. They argue that regardless of who wins the upcoming US elections, the best European response is to recognise the common challenges we face and try to create a common future that that will survive the demographic changes to come. One of these demographic challenges is immigration which according to Gary Freeman (Austin, Texas) is very likely to remain a focus of partisan disputes regardless of who is in the White House.
Finally, some suggest that a number of changes will take place in the realm of foreign policy. Jeffrey Anderson (Washington, DC) argues that two important and relatively novel features of American international leadership are at stake in the presidential election. One relates to the general kind of leadership that the world, and notably Europe, has come to expect from Washington. The other has to do with the specific contributions of the US administration to the debate about the current international economic crisis. In this context, Warren G. Lavey (Chicago, Illinois) highlights that the next US administration will face high expectations for stronger actions and leadership on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Beverly Crawford (Berkeley, California) completes the analysis by arguing that a new US administration will have to deal with the increasing limitations to traditional ‘power’ in dealing with the changing nature of threat and risk. In addition, a shift in the global balance of power may hamper the US ability to continue to assert international primacy. Therefore, unless America collaborates with Europe, it is in danger of adapting to a world order shaped by others, facing new threats alone, insisting on inadequate and outdated practices, and exercising the wrong kind of power to maintain primacy.
In the face of an increasingly multipolar international order, Europe and the US must work together to maintain their interests, influence, and security. But in a world where wielding hard power is no longer enough, perhaps the US has something to learn from the EU’s foreign policy model?
The EU region is by far the most important economic partner for the United States and vice versa. Add to that the role that European nations play as key international allies, both bilaterally and through NATO, one conclusion emerges; Europe matters.
For the past four years, the United States has been developing a new approach to foreign policy, becoming more like the kind of transatlantic partner that Europe has long yearned for. Yet could this progress be undone by a Romney victory?
