Anxious allies: European sovereignty after the US election

How much impact does the future US president have on the very concept of European sovereignty? Will the idea and initiatives to build more strategic autonomy in Europe be put back to bed with Joe Biden in the White House?

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With Trump´s inauguration in 2017 and his claims about NATO and the transatlantic relationship, Europe began to realize that it needed to take better care of its own security. With the official election result looming, host Mark Leonard talks to ECFR’s heads of offices from Berlin, Paris, Madrid, and Warsaw – Jana Puglierin, Tara Varma, Jose Ignacio Torreblanca and Piotr Buras – as well as Jeremy Shapiro, ECFR´s research director and in-house US expert: How much impact does the future US president have on the very concept of European sovereignty? Will the idea and initiatives to build more strategic autonomy in Europe be put back to bed with Joe Biden in the White House? Or does Europe have to forge its own agenda?


Further reading:
Topic page US elections and their impact on Europe and the world
• “Independence play: Europe’s pursuit of strategic autonomy” by Ulrike Franke & Tara Varma
• “An American chasm” The Rachman Review podcast with Jeremy Shapiro 

This podcast was recorded on 5 November 2020.

Bookshelf:
“These truths: a history of the United States” by Jill Lepore
• “We the People: a history of the United States” by Bidna, David et.al
• “Yoga” by Emmanuel Carrère
• “The tribalization of Europe: a defence of our liberal values” by Marlene Wind
Transcript Of John McCain’s concession speech
• TV show “Emily in Paris”
• TV show “Patria”

Cover image:
Watching Donald Trump vs Joe Biden Presidential Debate on ABC News from home in Silver Spring, Maryland on Tuesday night, 29 September 2020
Image by Elvert Barnes

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