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Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship
The Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship aims to strengthen the University’s capacities for teaching, research, and policy on the relationship between the U.S. and Europe.
Faculty Chair: Nicholas Burns
Research Director:
Torrey Taussig (until August 2021)
Deputy Director:
Alison Hillegeist (until September 2021)
Research and Administrative Manager:
Erika Manouselis
The Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship collaborated for a year with the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) to convene a group of experts and former government officials from the United States and Europe to discuss the crisis in the transatlantic relationship and to propose a strategy to revive and strengthen it. As a result, the “Stronger Together: A Strategy to Revitalize Transatlantic Power” report was published in December 2020. During early 2021, major European think tanks in Italy, France, Estonia, and the United Kingdom hosted the action plan authors and the collaboration co-leads (Faculty Chair of the Project on Europe Nicholas Burns and former Director of DGAP Daniela Schwarzer) for in-depth discussions on the report’s findings.
In September 2021, the Project welcomed senior Spanish diplomat, Lucia Garcia Rico, as the Rafael del Pino-Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAEC) fellow, who will pursue research on climate security and NATO during this academic year. Additionally, Nathalie Tocci, Director of the Instituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) and Special Advisor to EU High Representative and Vice President of the Commission Josep Borrell, joined the Harvard Kennedy School faculty as the annual Pierre Keller Visiting Professor. In Autumn 2021, Professor Tocci taught a course on “The Future of the European Union: The EU in the World,” and has chaired multiple seminars exploring the European Green Deal and Europe’s role as a leader in the global climate transition.
Similarly, the Project hosted more than 20 events as part of its high-level international speaker series with policymakers such as Peter Wittig, former German Ambassador to the U.S., UK, and UN, and Federica Mogherini, former High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, who both spoke about the way forward for the transatlantic relationship after the election of President Biden.
The Project made a concerted effort to elevate issues of racial justice within the transatlantic partnership as demonstrated by a seminar on “Advancing an Anti-Racist Transatlantic Agenda” with three policymakers from France, the UK and the U.S.: Caroline Abadie, Member of the French National Assembly; Oona King, Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Snap Inc and former Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom; and Desirée Cormier Smith, Senior Advisor in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
