Even before the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States in 2016, the Transatlantic relationship was under increasing pressure. The US ‘pivot’ to Asia intensified tensions around longstanding issues of ‘burden sharing’ – in particular, in relation to European security.
Since then, Europeans have debated the ideas of ‘European sovereignty’ and ‘strategic autonomy’. Meanwhile the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union has further complicated the Transatlantic relationship. Due to the importance of this relationship, it is the subject of several strands of work and projects of the Europe Programme.
One of these is a joint project of the Europe programme and the US and Americas programme explores how the Transatlantic relationship is evolving – particular the triangular relationship between the EU, the United States and the UK – and proposes ways to improve Transatlantic cooperation. In particular, it focuses on the increasingly important role of China in the Transatlantic relationship and how the EU, the United States and the United Kingdom can cooperate in responding to the China challenge.
A similar project, run together with the Royal United Servives Institute (RUSI) and supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, aims to foster a Transatlantic Dialogue on China.
These projects are led by Pepijn Bergsen, Alice Billon-Galland, and Hans Kundnani in the Europe Programme and by Dr Leslie Vinjumari and Marianne Schneider-Petsinger in the US and the Americas Programme.
