High-Level Transatlantic Lecture by Fiona HILL: "Resetting Transatlantic Relations"

In the framework of the Master of Arts in Transatlantic Affairs (MATA) programme, offered jointly with The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy,  the College of Europe organised its fourth (virtual) High-Level Lecture on Transatlantic Affairs on Friday 9 October 2020.

The lecture was delivered by Dr Fiona HILL, senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings Institution, Washington, DC.

She recently served as deputy assistant to the president of the United States and senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council from 2017 to 2019.

Dr HILL tackled the topic: "Resetting Transatlantic Relations". Sharing her personal experience of cross-cultural exchange, she stressed the importance of networks and people-to-people contacts for strong cross-national – and especially transatlantic – bonds. Based on such ties, it is now important to reinvent a shared transatlantic narrative and adapt the institutions built after 1945 to deal with such new global challenges as climate change and pandemics. This includes addressing  the relations of the transatlantic partners with China and Russia. In the latter case, Dr HILL argued that the EU’s members and the US will have to develop a new common strategy in the NATO framework. While interactions with Russia will need to continue, it has to be made clear that Russian behaviour such as that related to election interferences has to stop.

Reacting to Dr HILL’s lecture, the Rector of the College of Europe, Federica MOGHERINI, underlined that Europe and the US had jointly managed to overcome the two most dramatic times in recent European history – the war and the reunification of Europe. She agreed with Dr HILL that a shared narrative and reinforced framework of relations should now be fostered. Such relations can be built on the multiple connections that continue to exist today at the transnational level between the United States and Europe.

The lecture was followed by a lively Q&A session involving both the participants attending the event at the College of Europe and online.

Recording of the High-Level Transatlantic Lecture: 

Pictures of the event: