Where Is the Relationship between Europe and the United States Going?

What do two experts in transatlantic relations anticipate for 2018? The political scientists Constanze Stelzenmüller and Amanda Sloat, both Robert Bosch Senior Fellows at the American Think Tank The Brookings Institution, discussed the current state and future of the relationship between Europe and the United States. A special focus was given to the role of Turkey.

Robert Bosch Stiftung | March 2018
[DE Copy] BBTI_Papervorstellung_Meldung
Anita Back

Dr. Amanda Sloat, Moderatorin Dr. Jana Puglierin & Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller (l.t.r.)

”We need to have a relationship with America, where we have the capability of speaking, negotiating and disagreeing when necessary” says Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller, Robert Bosch Senior Fellow at Brookings. The political analyst and journalist urges Europe to share a larger burden in the transatlantic alliance and formulate a proactive foreign and security policy that matches the continent’s weight in global affairs. Stelzenmüller also stresses that turning away from each other would harm both partners on either side of the Atlantic. Dr. Amanda Sloat, who was named second Robert Bosch Senior Fellow at Brookings in October 2017, emphasizes that she believes there is no broad opposition in Europe against the transatlantic alliance: “There is anti-Trumpism in Europe, but not Anti-Americanism.”

New policy papers: "Normal is Over" and "The West’s Turkey Conundrum"

On March 12, 2018 both Robert Bosch Senior Fellows at Brookings discussed the current state and the future of the transatlantic alliance with 70 guests at the Berlin representative office of the Robert Bosch Stiftung. Both Fellows used the opportunity to present their latest policy papers published under the roof of the Brookings - Robert Bosch Foundation Transatlantic Initiative (BBTI) and to subsequently discuss the publications critically with the audience. Dr. Jana Puglierin, Head of Program at the Alfred von Oppenheim Center for European Policy Studies at the German Council on Foreign Relations moderated the event. The panelists also analyzed European and U.S. relations with Turkey. Amanda Sloat pleads for a constructive and principled engagement with Turkey and argues against any form of disentanglement from the transatlantic alliance. At the same time, she stresses that an improvement of relations with Turkey is not to be expected in the short to medium term. Rather, Amanda Sloat predicts that “relations will remain difficult at least until the election in Turkey in 2019”.