Making Transatlantic Relations Work in the Post-Lisbon Era

On June 1, 2010, the Center on the United States and Europe (CUSE) hosted a workshop entitled “Making Transatlantic Relations Work in the Post-Lisbon Era,” which was jointly organized with the Bertelsmann Foundation, the European Council for Foreign Relations (ECFR) and the Heinrich Böll Foundation. In light of the global power shift away from the West and a weakened liberal consensus, Europe and the United States face new challenges that call for common action. Transatlantic partners must put their differences aside and jointly examine their challenges within this broader context. Towards this aim, the organizing institutions joined forces to convene top experts and officials for a series of timely panel discussions on: “Russia: the challenge of finding the (common) right balance”; “Iran’s double challenge to Europe and the United States”; “AfPak: how to avoid a transatlantic divorce” and “The triangular relationship: The United States-Europe-China.”

The workshop was followed by the 2010 CUSE Annual Conference, which was co-organized by Brookings and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.  The Annual Conference featured prominent speakers from both sides of the Atlantic who explored critical issues shaping the future of transatlantic relations in the post-Lisbon Treaty era, including Europe’s Eastern neighborhood and the role Russia plays, and the impact of the Eurozone crisis.