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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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    26June 2009
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    Obama's path passes through Lebanon

    Obama chose to travel the road less travelled by recent US policies towards the Muslim world when he decided to deliver a speech in Cairo on 4 June. He set himself an enormous challenge: to transform Muslim public opinion so as to alter the impression that a US President is someone to throw shoes at rather than a potential partner for dialogue.

  • 06April 2009
    Change in Washington: new momentum for US-EU relations

    On 6th April, a group of experts and international observers from both sides of the Atlantic came together in Paris to take a fresh look at a new era in US-EU relations.

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    01April 2009
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    Europe's NATO

    This issue focuses on NATO, ahead of the summit of heads of state and government on 3-4 April. Álvaro de Vasconcelos and Daniel Hamilton give two perspectives. Also in this issue, Walter Posch writes about Iran's political landscape ahead of the country's June presidential election.

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    20January 2009
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    European perspectives on the new American foreign policy agenda
    With contributions from

    This collaborative effort of the EUISS research team highlights what it considers to be the major political event of 2009: the election of President Barack Obama and the impact that the change in the American administration will have on the world. It covers the priority areas for US-EU cooperation of global governance, climate change, disarmament and non-proliferation, Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and transatlantic relations.

  • 21November 2008
    A new departure: global challenges and EU-US policies after the American elections

    The Institute’s Washington Forum, brought together EU and US policy makers and researchers to discuss key foreign policy issues likely to be high on the agenda of incoming US administration, providing an open exchange of views from both sides of the Atlantic.

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    07November 2008
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    Obama's change and America's relations with the world

    Barack Obama won the election of 4 November because he communicated effectively to the Americans that he is the candidate of change. Indeed in all major respects Obama could not be more different from the outgoing and unpopular President Bush. Unlike Bush, Obama is a man of humble origins, brought up outside mainstream America: in Indonesia and Hawaii.

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    29September 2008
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    Bush's legacy and America's next foreign policy

    EUISS’s transatlantic researcher looks back at US foreign policy over the last 8 years. He argues that whether Obama or McCain wins the upcoming presidential election, there will be considerable continuity in America’s foreign policy. The paper focuses on US relations with Iraq, Iran and China, as well as touching on Europe and Russia.

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    30July 2008
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    A better and stronger Europe

    Following Ireland’s ‘No’ to the Lisbon Treaty, echoing the French and Dutch voters’ rejection of the Constitutional Treaty in 2005, the EU needs to consider carefully how to win back citizens’ support and thus overcome the fears that are crippling its ability to shape world politics.

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    28March 2008
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    Why Kosovo?

    The newest ESDP mission to Kosovo is a display of unity by the European Union, focused on the goal of ensuring stability grounded on the rule of law, including strict respect for minority rights, in the newly-independent state. The EU must achieve its objective while remaining a magnet for Kosovars and at the same time for the Serbs.

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    20March 2008
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    Transatlantic relations under an Obama administration

    Europe, like virtually every corner of the world, has been closely watching the US election campaign, looking for clues as to what might change in its relationship with the United States when a new president emerges from among the triumvirate of Senators Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain.

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    01August 2006
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    Mid-term elections in the US: in the shadow of Iraq

    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.

  • 01March 2006
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    A strategy from Venus? Comment on the US National Security Strategy 2006

    (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 and going down different paths.

  • 02February 2006
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    The State of the Union Address: when reality bites

    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 changes such as his 2002 speech when the President used the famous reference to the 'axis of evil'.

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    01January 2006
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    Friends again?

    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 seems that transatlantic relations have returned to a more harmonious state.

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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.

  • 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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