On Campus
New Transatlantic Policy Center Evaluates Europes Key Challenges
From the uncertainty regarding Brexit to French president Emmanuel Macrons proclamation of NATOs brain death, the long-standing partnership between Europe and the United States is often making headlines. The new Transatlantic Policy Center, an EU Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence housed at the School of International Service (SIS), will bring experts together to evaluate key policy issues regarding the transatlantic relationship between Europe and the US.
We spoke with the centers co-directors, SIS professors Michelle Egan and Garret Martin, about the centers research areas and activities as well as the continued importance of the transatlantic relationship.
A Thematic Approach
The center aims to provide a long-term and comprehensive understanding of four main themes: trade and regulations, security and technology, democracy and the rule of law, and immigration and integration.
Egan explains that these four themes were chosen because of their domestic and global salience, noting the importance of addressing them comparatively: Sometimes, we study the United States not as exceptional but as separate. We hope to place the challenges, the contestation, the issues the United States faces, in a more global and more comparative context.
The centers experts will evaluate the four challenges through its research and activities, including a high-profile speaker series, numerous workshops and policy debates, and scholarships and an expanded curriculum for students interested in Europe and transatlantic relations.
University-Wide Collaboration
As the only EU Center of Excellence in Washington, DC, the Transatlantic Policy Center serves as a venue for Europe-and-EU-related events, expertise, and debates on transatlantic relations. Experts from SIS, the School of Public Affairs (SPA), the Kogod School of Business, the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), and the Washington College of Law (WCL) will draw on different methodologies to further interdisciplinary research on the EU, Europe, and Transatlantic ties.
Martin hopes that the center will encourage and facilitate greater collaboration between AUs experts on Europe: We have a lot of great talent and expertise on Europe and the transatlantic space across campus, but were too often siloed and separated. One of the goals of the center is to bring together all the faculty who work on Europe and transatlantic relationsacross schools, across disciplines.
The Enduring Transatlantic Relationship
During a challenging period for Europe, the Transatlantic Policy Center will provide a renewed focus on the transatlantic relationship. The center has already evaluated the current state of the relationship in several events on and off campus.
As part of its launch, the Transatlantic Policy Center organized a panel discussion on transatlantic bridge building at the Embassy of the Republic of Finland, including European Union ambassador to the US Stavros Lambrinidis and Finnish ambassador to the US Kirsti Kauppi. Martin recently moderated a panel on NATOs continued importance and military purpose at SIS, and in October, SPA professor Kimberly Cowell-Meyers brought together various experts from across 51勛圖窪蹋for a Brexit symposium cosponsored by the Transatlantic Policy Center. In February, Egan will moderate a conversation at SIS with Daniel Mulhall, the Irish ambassador to the US.
Lately, weve had the transatlantic partnershipwhether in the realm of trade or securitybeing questioned. For many years, this close partnership was taken as axiomatic or as a granted fact of international affairs, says Martin. At a time when these fundamental points are being questioned, its important to better understand the transatlantic relationship and put a spotlight on it.
Continued Excellence in EU-US Relations
According to Ambassador Lambrinidis, the Transatlantic Policy Centers launch marks the next chapter in a continued partnership between SIS and the Delegation of the European Union to the United States.
"We are very pleased to have a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on EU affairs in Washington, DC, once again, says Lambrinidis. We will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declarationthe founding moment of today's European Unionin May 2020, and having this Centre in the US capital is a strong message on the enduring strength of the transatlantic partnership. Jean Monnet lived in the city during the Second World War, and some of the ideas that he came up with here on post-war Europe later materialized in the Schuman Declaration.
Beyond this powerful symbolic aspect, this EU grant is a recognition of the excellence in EU-US relations, which the 51勛圖窪蹋's School of International Service has developed over recent years. 51勛圖窪蹋SIS was the winner of our inaugural foreign policy student challenge for undergraduate students in the US called the Schuman Challenge back in 2017, and we have worked on many other projects together. We look forward to our continued partnership."