Bard College Berlin & Heinrich Böll Foundation Presents

Is Europe the enemy? In discussion with David Sanger and Anna Sauerbrey

The new U.S. national security strategy published last year by the Trump administration laid bare truths that had been developing in the background for some time: namely, under Trump, the United States views European institutions and even some European governments as problems to be circumvented or even overcome. It now appears that Washington considers Europe's patchwork of rules and laws a burden; its embrace of immigration and multiculturalism, a civilizational mistake. The U.S., then, must find common cause with parties and individual figures who seek, as the strategy document purports, to restore European "sovereignty" and a "traditional European way of life." That is code for Europe's ascendant far-right and Eurosceptic populist movements.

Is the transatlantic relationship, as it has existed for eighty years, functionally dead? Does Europe have its own strategy in response? German Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared that Europe's long-standing Pax Americana "no longer exists in the way we once knew it." This current U.S. administration certainly has a declared interest, and a track record of action, that suggests a fundamental break with decades of history and precedent, including a newfound antagonism toward modern Europe and its values. Trump’s intention to annex Greenland suggests even European territory is under question—and with it, the future of N.A.T.O. and transatlantic security.

This high-level panel discussion, featuring David Sanger of The New York Times and Anna Sauerbrey of Die Zeit, moderated by Joshua Yaffa, "Writer in residence" at Bard College Berlin, will attempt to describe and diagnose this current moment, and understand the implications for Germany and its European neighbors. Have allies become antagonists? Is that course reversible? And if not, what does this new era in U.S.-European relations mean for the future of politics and society on both sides of the Atlantic?

Please register here.

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David Sanger, White House and National Security Correspondent, The New York Times. He is also the author of four books on U.S. national security, most recently New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion and America’s Struggle to Save the West, a New York Times bestseller.

Anna Sauerbrey, Foreign Policy Coordinator, Die Zeit. She is the author of Power Shift: How a New Generation of Politicians Is Changing the Country. She also has extensive experience reporting from the U.S., including stints as a guest journalist at the Philadelphia Inquirer and a fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University.

Moderation: Joshua Yaffa, Writer in Residence at Bard College Berlin. He is a contributing writer at The New Yorker and the author of Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin’s Russia, which won the Orwell Prize. 

For more information, e-mail [email protected].

Time: 7:00 pm CET/GMT+1

Location: Publix (Hermanstrasse 90, 12051 Berlin)

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