Conversation on Transatlanticism and Europe Blog

By Katherine Brown This blog post was written for the course "Current Issues in Global and EU Affairs", which took place from February 12-April 30, 2018. US President Donald Trump recently welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron to the White House, and it was quite the spectacle. If there was any pomp in Washington D.C., it was put on display for the French President. It is not surprising, the French and US military routinely partake in military exercises, spends billions on military equipment – and this is only in the current century (let us not forget who funded the rebellion against the British). The security relationship between France and the United States remains strong even in the face of Donald Trump, who most people assumed would doom any good and meaningful relationships the US has. In fact, President Trump seems to have gotten one memo from the swamp – France matters when it comes to security. While a good relationship between two strong military nations is...

By Rafael A. Rodríguez Diaz This blog post was written for the course "Current Issues in Global and EU Affairs", which took place from February 12-April 30, 2018. The Leuven Roundtable. l-r: Prof. Michael Smith, Mr. Alexandros Papaioannou, Mr. Richard Tibbels, Prof. Simon Duke As part of the graduate-level seminar of EURO 596, which explores current issues in global and European Union (EU) affairs, and in the framework of the Jean Monnet ERASMUS+ and Leuven-Illinois project, “Conversations on Transatlanticism and Europe”, 3 students and I participated in a study abroad trip to the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium during the Spring Break of 2018. As part of our agenda, on March 19, we attended a roundtable entitled: “The Transatlantic Community between Contestation and Cooperation”. This round table was divided into two parts: a) “Contestation, Cooperation and Global Threats in the Transatlantic Security Community”; and b) “Transatlantic Competition, Cooperat...

By Alberto M. Burgos-Rivera This blog post was written for the course "Current Issues in Global and EU Affairs", which took place February 12-April 30, 2018. To many a political analyst, Trump’s tariff increase on both steel and aluminum imports, by 25 and 10 percent respectively, were to eventually come as part of President Donald Trump’s campaign promise. That promise came to take place in early March 2018. Riding on an economic nationalist platform, some of the arguments presented by President Trump were based on security concerns, arguing that domestic metal production was vital to the United States’ national security. On the other hand, President Trump argued that increased from states like China caused a worldwide decrease in steel prices, making American steel uncompetitive for the international market, hence, making the US dependent on foreign imports. Initially, the imposition of tariffs was to be applied to all countries. With President Trump’s announcement ...