Join us for a thought-provoking discussion with the authors of Partners of First Resort: America, Europe, and the Future of the West. We will have an interactive conversation exploring Western alliances and their future. The authors will unpack the risks and opportunities of some of the critical foreign policy challenges the next administration will confront. There is no reading requirement for this discussion. We invite participants of all backgrounds to participate in this opportunity to directly engage with panelists on these important issues. More about the book below.

About the Authors

David McKean is a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund. Formerly he served as director of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State and as U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg.

Bart M.J. Szewczyk is adjunct professor at Sciences Po in Paris. Formerly he served on the Policy Planning staff of the U.S. Department of State and as adviser on global affairs at the European Commission's think tank.

Description of the book from the publisher, Brookings Institution Press: Is the Western alliance, which brought together the United States and Europe after World War II, in an inevitable state of decline, and if so, can anything be done to repair it? There seems little doubt that fragmentation of the Western alliance was under way even before Donald Trump’s unorthodox policy making broadened the schism. Opinions differ as to the next step, however, with some taking the current divisions as a given and advocating the creation of a new group of like-minded democracies that would exclude the United States, while others seek to exploit the rift in hopes of furthering their own nationalistic ambitions for a post liberal world.

The authors outline a “transatlantic renaissance,” in which U.S. and European leaders would work together to craft a new Atlantic Charter that would restore the liberal objectives that animated the Western alliance for more than seven decades. Modernizing institutional relationships across the Atlantic should help both the United States and Europe address common challenges jointly and improve burden sharing. The world needs a vibrant and energetic West to protect fundamental values from illiberal forces, both internal and external.