Following the tumultuous year 2020, people are looking towards the future with trepidation about what further challenges might be ahead, but for many in the United States and Europe, starting 2021 with a new US President represents a flicker of hope amidst the uncertainty. In the political and academic worlds, there is a tentative optimism that President Biden will usher in a new era of EU-US cooperation, helping to prove the resilience of the transatlantic bond.

The policy paper of Josephine D’Urso explores the future of presently-strained US-EU relations. The ways in which former-President Donald Trump contributed to the breakdown of transatlantic trust are exposited, followed by a discussion about what are likely to be the most prominent points of collaboration between the Biden Administration and European Union leaders as well as areas where policy disagreements are predicted. The study further focuses on the realignment of US climate-change policy with European values of environmental protection, and US-EU joint efforts in the Middle East, including reigniting the JCPOA. It also analyzes the transatlantic divergence on China; the forging of a Sino-European economic agreement, and what this means for EU-US collective opposition to human rights abuses and totalitarianism. Finally, the paper addresses NATO reform and the necessity for leaders to configure an alliance equipped for 21^st-century challenges.

Policy Paper – Josephine D’Urso, February 2021

Full text in PDF under the link below.