The transatlantic relationship has been the cornerstone of the EU’s foreign and security policy. However, in a context where some in the US are looking inwards and questioning the values and institutions their country has built internationally, expectations on Europe have increased. The rise of new global power centres has added a new dimension to transatlantic debates, and both sides of the Atlantic must redefine the relationship to preserve security and prosperity, as well as maintain influence in an emerging international system where the 'West’– may no longer be dominant.
The EU has also cultivated and institutionalised relations with Canada and many countries of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Recent changes in the international context have made the EU a more attractive partner to LAC countries, which are facing economic slowdowns, rising criminality and problems related to the rule of law. However, the increasing contestation of democratic values (which used to bind LAC countries together) has put regional institutions under pressure and strained relations with the EU.
How should European and American policymakers respond to the inevitable rise of China and India on the world scene? Werner Weidenfeld assesses the ways in which international relations will undergo change in the years ahead and looks to a new Atlantic partnership while Marcin...
America is failing in Iraq. It has disintegrated into a civil war and the domestic situation in the country is constantly deteriorating. The American public has turned against the war and Bush's popularity has declined sharply. Iraq proved a major factor in the Congressional...
Les attentats du 11 septembre 2001 ont démontré de façon spectaculaire que les principaux défis de sécurité posés à l’Amérique ne venaient pas des rivalités de puissance traditionnelles mais plutôt des zones grises, en mal de souveraineté, des Etats faillis ou mal gouvernés dont...
For the first time since 1994 the House of Representatives has been taken by the Democrats and a slim Democrat majority has emerged in the Senate. The nation’s dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq, alongside the corruption scandals surrounding the GOP, proved to be the most...
A la veille des élections législatives, les États-Unis ressemblent à ce Gulliver empêtré que décrivait Stanley Hoffman après leur échec au Vietnam. À trois niveaux au moins, on touche aux limites de la puissance américaine. Sur le plan militaire, parce que l'échec est possible en...
The approaching mid-term elections (due to take place on 7 November) to both Houses of the Congress and a number of state governorships may deliver a considerable change in the US and have an impact on its foreign policy.
(a modified version of this analysis was published by European Voice, 23-29 March 2006) In his now famous essay 'Power and Paradise' Robert Kagan forcefully argued that 'America was from Mars and Europe from Venus' and as a consequence of this America and Europe were diverging...
The State of the Union Address is considered to be the most important annual speech in the US and the major occasion for the President to outline his priorities and influence the agenda of the Congress. In the past, George W. Bush used this occasion to announce radical policy...
Three years after the crisis ignited by America’s decision to go to war in Iraq, can the United States and the European Union be said to be ‘friends again’? After a rocky and on occasion openly acrimonious period in EU-US relations during George W. Bush’s first presidency,it...
The broader Middle Eastern region has become the central focus of U.S.-European diplomatic relations. Talks between senior European policymakers and U.S. officials are now often dominated by issues that arise from the threats to peace and stability that emanate from this troubled...