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The Americas

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 at the international level, expectations on Europe have increased. The rise of new global power centres has added a new dimension to transatlantic debates, and both partners 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 such a dominant, nor united player.

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 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, as well as strained relations with the EU.

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    01January 2006
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    America, Europe, and the Crescent of Crisis

    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 region. The Middle East looms equally large in public opinion on both sides of the Atlantic.

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    01October 2005
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    US China Policy: Implications for the EU

    The rapid modernisation of the People's Liberation Army, Beijing's increasingly threatening stance vis-à-vis Taiwan and its demand for energy are the main factors driving America's preoccupation with China. All sectors of opinion in the US criticised the EU's declared intention to lift its embargo on arms exports to China. This policy was misunderstood and its implications exaggerated.

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    06September 2005
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    Iraq, Katrina and US Foreign Policy: Implications for the EU

    Since the re-election of President Bush, American foreign policy has undergone a subtle but noticeable and significant transformation. The hawkish attitude demonstrated by Bush during his first term and his cavalier approach towards alliance-building have been replaced by a toning down of the previously aggressive rhetoric and an attempt to reach out to allies and, in particular, to the EU.

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    01September 2005
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    EU-US burdensharing: who does what?

    This Chaillot Paper examines burdensharing patterns between the United States and Europe, focusing in particular on the time period since the 9/11 attacks. It does so by analysing military and civilian burdensharing activities undertaken to address the high-priority challenges identified in the 2002 US National Security Strategy (NSS) and the 2003 European Security Strategy (ESS).

  • 15July 2005
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    How the US views the European crisis

    The failure of the EU constitution in the referendums in France and the Netherlands has met with three types of responses in America: disappointment, satisfaction and ignorance. Most of the Americans who care about European affairs have not welcomed the failure.

  • 08July 2005
    Transatlantic Conference: new Bush - new EU - new issues

    Although the transatlantic relationship has been dogged by differences over the war in Iraq, the embargo on arms exports to China and divergences in policy towards the Middle East, significant efforts to facilitate a rapprochement have now emerged.

  • 01July 2005
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    Reconsidering the Future

    The future of the relations between Europe and America should be redefined, in accordance with substantial evolutions inside NATO and the EU. With every new team comes a new partnership. This, at least, seems to be the joint stakes on both sides of the Atlantic ever since the re-election of George W. Bush. With the 2003 crisis behind us, the time has come to put the pieces of transatlantic cooperation back together.

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    01July 2005
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    Attention, danger!

    On avait accusé les électeurs du « non » d’obscurantisme. Les dirigeants font pire, aggravant par le haut la crise que les électeurs d’en bas ont ouverte au sein de l’Union. Du côté des opinions, le message dominant est que rien ne va plus.

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    01July 2005
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    Looking into Iraq

    Two years after George W. Bush declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq, the country is still far from stable. A fierce insurgency is still hampering the reconstruction of the country’s infrastructure and the development of the political process. On the other hand, success, however limited, cannot be denied: on 30 January 2005 Iraqis cast their ballots to elect a Transitional Assembly in most provinces of the country and a new government was inaugurated by the end of March 2005.

  • 22April 2005
    Islam in Europe and US security

    The EUISS co-sponsored a Conference on Democracy and Global Islam organised by the Center on Institutions and Governance based at UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies. The conference was the first of its kind to discuss the impact of globalising Islam on Europe's growing Muslim population with regard to US security.

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  • 14May 2002
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    L'Otan va changer parce que l'Amérique change

    Tous les alliés européens de Washington sont perplexes, voire inquiets, devant les évolutions stratégiques des Etats-Unis, et en particulier devant leur attitude à l'égard de l'Otan. Ils constatent en effet que l'unilatéralisme américain, cette méfiance envers toute démarche et institutions multilatérales, s'applique aussi à l'égard de l'Otan, qui était jusque-là perçue comme l'organisation internationale favorite de Washington

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    01May 2002
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    Terms of engagement: the paradox of American power and the transatlantic dilemma post-11 September

    The world has never known a power such as the United States. Consequently, Europe cannot expect the United States to be anything other than unilateralist. America is simply too powerful. What matters, therefore, is the nature of American unilateralism.

  • 01April 2002
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    America's military strategy after 11 September: impact on Europe

    On 4 February 2002, George Bush presented Congress with the bill for a total, permanent mobilisation of America against terrorism and its consequences: a budget of $2,130 billion, including an additional $48 billion for the Pentagon in October 2002, which is the biggest rise in military funding for 20 years.

  • 13March 2002
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    It’s time for a trans-Atlantic summit

    One of the most striking examples of the potential for new transatlantic solidarity after the September 11 terrorist attacks was the publication by the French newspaper Le Monde, not known to be reflexively pro-American, of an editorial entitled "We are all Americans." The degree to which that solidarity has now dissipated was illustrated by a rather different headline in that same newspaper five months later: "Has the United States gone crazy?"...

  • 25February 2002
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    Europe, Etats-Unis : Eviter le pire des deux mondes

    Aux Etats-Unis, l'explosion de l'effort militaire - 1 milliard de dollars de dépenses par jour - frappe autant par l'ampleur des chiffres annoncés que par l'implosion réciproque du discours politique américain. Comme si la stratégie militaire tenait lieu à elle seule de toute stratégie.

  • 07February 2002
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    Europe-Etats-Unis : ni allégeance, ni affrontement

    Ce n’est pas l’Irak qui divise les Européens, c’est leur rapport à l’Amérique. Aucun gouvernement européen n’a jamais pris la défense du dictateur irakien, aucun ne nie non plus la menace que représente un Irak potentiellement doté d’armes de destruction massive et tous font du désarmement de l’Irak, sous l’égide des Nations Unies, l’une des priorités de la communauté internationale.

  • 01January 2002
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    European and Transatlantic Defense Industrial Strategies: A European perspective

    The history of transatlantic armaments cooperation goes back to the beginning of the Cold War. Since then, however, the nature of cooperation has changed considerably, from simple licensing of US systems to Western Europe in the 1950s and 1960s to co-production arrangements in the 1970s, followed by government-to-government joint development programs in the 1980s and 1990s. In recent years, industry-led cooperation has become the most prominent feature

  • 20November 2001
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    Défense : plus, plus vite et mieux

    Loin d’en détruire la pertinence et la légitimité, les nouvelles menaces terroristes évidentes depuis le 11 septembre jouent comme autant de facteurs d’accélération pour la mise en œuvre d’une politique européenne de sécurité et de défense (PESD). Les raisons en sont multiples...

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    02October 2001
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    Enlargement: a new NATO

    What is NATO for? The question, which some may find provocative, is none the less the essential one concerning the future of the Alliance – its legitimacy, its missions and its desirable or foreseeable geographical enlargement. Logically, the Allies should agree on the Alliance’s future role and priorities before deciding on the next enlargement – which is due to happen in May 2002.

  • 01October 2001
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    11 September: US Policy & Transatlantic Relations

    The impact on US Foreign Policy What are the implications for the direction of US foreign and security policy in the wake of the attacks on 11 September? Will it become more multilateralist or unilateralist? How will it affect transatlantic relations?

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