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Pax Transatlantica: America and Europe in the Post-Cold War Era

Is the West finished? In recent years, observers have begun pointing to signs that the transatlantic community is eroding in all manner of ways. Nationalism on the rise. Its economic twin, protectionism, resurgent. Europeans unwilling to cooperate with the US when it comes down to the use of military force. Since 2016, following the twin shocks of Brexit and Trump’s election, the concept of a unified transatlantic community seemed to become a relic. But, in Pax Transatlantica, the international historian Jussi Hanhimäki explains why the West is far from over.

Date & Time

Tuesday
Jun. 29, 2021
10:00am – 11:30am ET

Location

Zoom Webinar

Overview

Space in the Zoom webinar is limited, but this event will be live-streamed on this webpage. Registration information will be available shortly.

Is the West finished? In recent years, observers have begun pointing to signs that the transatlantic community is eroding in all manner of ways. Nationalism on the rise. Its economic twin, protectionism, resurgent. Europeans unwilling to cooperate with the US when it comes down to the use of military force. Since 2016, following the twin shocks of Brexit and Trump’s election, the concept of a unified transatlantic community seemed to become a relic. But, in Pax Transatlantica, the international historian Jussi Hanhimäki explains why the West is far from over.

Shifts and even crises abound in the history of the transatlantic relationship. Still, the West endures. Conflicts, rather than undermining the relationship, illustrate its resilience. Hanhimäki shows that the transatlantic relationship is playing out this cycle today, not least evidenced by the impact of the presidency of Joe Biden and the challenge of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Not only will the West’ continue to exist, Hanhimäki concludes, it is likely to thrive in the future.

Jussi M. Hanhimäki is Professor of International History and Politics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. He is the author, among other works, of The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy (New York, 2004) and The Rise and Fall of Détente: American Foreign Policy and the Transformation of the Cold War (Washington, DC, 2013). His latest book is Pax Transatlantica: America and Europe in the Post-Cold War Era, to be published by Oxford University Press in the spring of 2021. He is currently working on a dual biography of Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski.


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History and Public Policy Program

The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs.  Read more

Global Europe Program

The Global Europe Program addresses vital issues affecting the European continent, US-European relations, and Europe’s ties with the rest of the world. We investigate European approaches to critical global issues: digital transformation, climate, migration, global governance. We also examine Europe’s relations with Russia and Eurasia, China and the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Our program activities cover a wide range of topics, from the role of NATO, the European Union and the OSCE to European energy security, trade disputes, challenges to democracy, and counter-terrorism. The Global Europe Program’s staff, scholars-in-residence, and Global Fellows participate in seminars, policy study groups, and international conferences to provide analytical recommendations to policy makers and the media.  Read more

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