Resetting Transatlantic Relations: Central Europe and the USA

The United States’ policy approach towards Central and Eastern Europe will be discussed within a broader context of American foreign policy objectives in Europe and neighbouring regions.

Two such goals – repairing ties with European partners and NATO allies, and deterring Russia from further destabilising Eastern Europe – will most likely shape the unique dynamics of the Biden administration’s policy towards Central and Eastern Europe.

Special focus will be given to Polish-American relations and how they might change (or not) under the new administration. Given the current political climate in the United States and Europe, the main points will be countering Russia’s influence, focusing on energy security cooperation (i.e. through the Three Seas Initiative), and addressing liberal democratic values in the region.

This event was recorded on Friday 19 March 2021.

Wojciech Michnik is currently an assistant professor of International Relations and Security Studies at Jagiellonian University and contributing editor for the New Eastern Europe. He is a former Eisenhower Defense Fellow at NATO Defense College in Rome and Fulbright visiting scholar at Columbia University. In 2014 Mr. Michnik worked as a foreign and security policy analyst at the Department of Americas in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.

Christopher Reeves is a lecturer in International Relations and International History at the Jesuit University Ignatianum in Krakow, and the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. His research and teaching interests include Poland’s foreign and security policies, with particular reference to the concept of strategic culture and its relations with the United States, and the history of Transatlantic Relations.

Lauren Speranza is the Director of the Transatlantic Defense and Security Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington, DC. Her work focuses on European security and the future of NATO, hybrid threats, and defense technology. She previously served as Deputy Director of the Transatlantic Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council.

Meet the chair

Christopher Coker is Director of 杏吧论坛 IDEAS.