Multilateralism after covid-19
How can Europe adapt its strategies for multilateralism in this competitive world and what would they look like?
Experts & Staff
Susi Dennison
Director, European Power programme
Areas of expertise
European foreign and security policy strategy; politics, political movements and cohesion within the EU; Flexible Union; European refugee and migration policy; human rights, democracy, and justice
Languages
English and French
Biography
Susi Dennison is a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Her topics of focus include the strategy, politics and governance of European foreign policy; migration, and the toolkit for Europe as a global actor.
At ECFR, Dennison leads the European Power programme, which explores how to protect European interests in the post-corona era, balancing the tensions between building European sovereignty and shaping a rules-based international system. She previously led ECFR’s foreign policy scorecard project for five years and worked with the MENA programme on North Africa. Before joining ECFR in 2010, Dennison worked for Amnesty International, on advocacy towards the EU institutions. She began her career in HM Treasury in the United Kingdom. There she held a range of positions, including with the EU Co-ordination and Strategy team during the Convention on the Future of Europe. She advised on prison, probation and migration policy in the run-up to the 2004 wave of accession to the EU, on enterprise in disadvantaged regions and served in the Private Office of the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
How Europeans see Biden’s America
How do Europeans assess the future of transatlantic relations?
Europe’s battle of narratives
How can Europe win the global battle of narratives during the covid-19 pandemic and a struggle for geopolitical influence?
All eyes on Ethiopia: What the EU and the US can do
What are the regional implications of the Tigray conflict and the prospects for transatlantic cooperation around the issue?
EU Budget: How the Frugal Five Can Become the Transformative Five
How can the frugal five become the transformative five? What issues concern voters the most after the recovery deal?
A new transatlantic bargain: An action plan for transformation, not restoration
The Trump years galvanised Europeans’ efforts to strengthen their own sovereignty; they now need to agree concrete offers they can make to the new administration
The transformative five: A new role for the frugal states after the EU recovery deal
The reputation of Austria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and Sweden as ‘frugal states’ does not reflect public sentiment in these countries
Comment les opinions publiques influencent-elles la politique étrangère ?
L'ECFR a le plaisir de vous inviter à une discussion virtuelle sur l'opinion publique et la politique étrangère
Second acts: How Europe can renew the transatlantic partnership
This could be the moment to build a more balanced transatlantic relationship, with Europeans showing the US where we need it to engage, and how – rather than simply waiting for cues from Washington
Europe’s new transatlantic bargain for Biden’s America
When Biden enters the White House, he will look for a Europe that brings solutions rather than problems. Europeans should show they can be an equal partner & offer him a new transatlantic bargain.
Publications
A new transatlantic bargain: An action plan for transformation, not restoration
The Trump years galvanised Europeans’ efforts to strengthen their own sovereignty; they now need to agree concrete offers they can make to the new administration
The transformative five: A new role for the frugal states after the EU recovery deal
The reputation of Austria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and Sweden as ‘frugal states’ does not reflect public sentiment in these countries
Crisis presidency: How Portuguese leadership can guide the EU into the post-covid era
The Portuguese EU presidency should handle issues in line with European voters’ perceptions of the new reality created by the coronavirus
Together in trauma: Europeans and the world after covid-19
A new survey shows that, after the onset of the covid-19 crisis, there has been a rise in public support for unified EU action to tackle global threats
False moves: Migration and development aid
Europe should not confuse development aid’s role in reducing forced migration with that of reducing migration more broadly
The instinctive multilateralist: Portugal and the politics of cooperation
The Portuguese hope that the EU can help them tackle the challenges of globalisation: from climate change to cooperation on the impact of freedom of movement
Give the people what they want: Popular demand for a strong European foreign policy
European voters want to see the European Union come of age as a geopolitical actor and chart its own course
How to govern a fragmented EU: What Europeans said at the ballot box
The results of the European election confront EU leaders with a considerable challenge: navigating a new, more fragmented, and polarised political environment
What Europeans really feel: The battle for the political system
Support for membership of the European Union is currently high, but so too is pessimism about the future of the European project
Kingmakers of the mainstream: predictions for the European Parliament election
The next European Parliament will be finely balanced between the left bloc of socialists and greens, the European People’s Party, and anti-European parties
Articles
Second acts: How Europe can renew the transatlantic partnership
This could be the moment to build a more balanced transatlantic relationship, with Europeans showing the US where we need it to engage, and how – rather than simply waiting for cues from Washington
The proof of the European Council pudding will be in the eating
EU leaders need to show that they are not only capable of reaching an agreement between themselves, but also of shaping the post-coronavirus world
Spain goes Eisenhower: Coronavirus, cohesion, and the return of MFF talks
The post-corona recovery threatens Europe’s cohesion, but Spain’s attempt to bridge the north-south divide is likely to fall short
Pulling through the coronavirus together: European and international solutions to the pandemic
European governments can only defend their citizens effectively if they cooperate at a European level and reinforce multilateral structures based on openness and information sharing
The colour of money: Green deals, cohesion funds, and the populist challenge
Nationalist parties are increasingly ready to portray climate change as another refugee crisis – an occasion for Brussels to impose standards on member states.
Table scrap: Budget talks in a fragmented Europe
It will be difficult for the member states that are most invested in the EU’s global role to prevent a reduction in the external portion of its budget
Farming versus foreign policy: The future of the EU budget
The EU’s global role matters to member states, but investing in it is not political leaders’ top priority
Von der Leyen’s safe Commission
Billed as a safe pair of hands, Ursula von der Leyen is about to find out that caution can only take her so far
The end of monogamy in Europe?
With two thirds of Europeans voting for a pro-European party, the big challenge now is for the political groups to move beyond their status quo ways of working
Seven days to save the European Union
The European Parliament elections take place next week - our latest pan-European polling reveals voters are deeply concerned about what the future holds
Specials
What Europeans really want: Five myths debunked
New ECFR/YouGov research reveals huge fluidity in current voting intentions: 70 percent of Europeans certain to vote are yet to make their choice. Nearly 100m swing voters are up for grabs.
The 2019 European election: How anti-Europeans plan to wreck Europe and what can be done to stop it
Summary With anti-Europeans on their way to winning more than one-third of seats in the next European Parliament, the stakes in the May 2019 election…
The nightmare of the dark: The security fears that keep Europeans awake at night
Great power competition is increasingly shaping Europeans’ security environment, while other security threats are also on the rise, from terrorism and cyber attacks to climate change
New European Security Initiative
Edited by Ulrike Esther Franke, Manuel Lafont Rapnouil & Susi Dennison
Fear and loathing on the road to the US elections
European leaders are underestimating the danger that Trump presents to the transatlantic alliance and assuming too much continuity in the event of a Clinton presidency
The Future of Schengen
In the midst of a Schengen crisis, how do Europe's member states see the future of Europe's visa-free travel area?
Video
Britain in Europe: So near yet so far?
Almut Moeller and Susi Dennison discuss the Britain in Europe Renegotiation Scorecard, and how the fourth basket around migration can be moved forward
The incurable European
Diplomat Robert Cooper, UK PSC Ambassador Angus Lapsley and ECFR's Susi Dennison, explore where and how the UK has influenced European foreign policy decision making in 2014
Podcasts
Multilateralism after covid-19
How can Europe adapt its strategies for multilateralism in this competitive world and what would they look like?
How Europeans see Biden’s America
How do Europeans assess the future of transatlantic relations?
Europe’s battle of narratives
How can Europe win the global battle of narratives during the covid-19 pandemic and a struggle for geopolitical influence?
All eyes on Ethiopia: What the EU and the US can do
What are the regional implications of the Tigray conflict and the prospects for transatlantic cooperation around the issue?
Europe’s new transatlantic bargain for Biden’s America
When Biden enters the White House, he will look for a Europe that brings solutions rather than problems. Europeans should show they can be an equal partner & offer him a new transatlantic bargain.
The covid-19 rupture: what will it mean for Europeans’ security?
Even before the pandemic, Europeans had much to worry about: slow economies and polarised politics, rising global tensions and disorder, an unstable neighbourhood, and a…
How is covid-19 changing European economic sovereignty?
What does the corona crisis mean for economic coercion? How does it amplify some of the problems stemming from punitive economic measures Europeans have worried…
How is covid-19 changing the transatlantic relationship?
How will the tensions around the response to the coronavirus play out through the recovery from this crisis? Can EU states, with their diverse perspectives…
Geopolitics in the coronavirus era – who will be crowned winner?
Last week’s episode saw our experts dissecting the coronavirus’ implications for Europe. In today's episode, we’re breaking down how the crisis is unfolding in the…
How to deal with our Western Balkan neighbours?
North Macedonia and Albania wanted to start negotiations with the EU after having been candidate countries since 2005 and 2014. But the enlargement plans seemed…
In the media
As soon as it becomes a concrete proposal on paper, and the colours are nailed tothe mast on what it means, it then gets down to the detail of negotiation and it becomes very tricky.
Susi Dennison comments on the CBAM.
Susi Dennison talks about the European Green Deal and the geopolitical implications.
Susi Dennison is quoted in an article commenting on Ursula von der Leyen’s action at the forefront of the pandemic and the possibilities she has to shape the new global order after the pandemic.
Susi Dennison was interviewed on how the European Green Deal could change the world order.
Susi Dennison comments on how the events in the Capitol affect Europeans’ perception of the US’s role in the world.