American Academy Special Event

A Transatlantic Reckoning: What the 2025 US National Security Strategy Means for Europe

On December 4, 2025, the Trump White House published a new US National Security Strategy (NSS). The document rocked European capitals and elicited astonishment from a wide range of European and American foreign policy experts. The NSS heralds a sharp reorientation of American foreign and defense policy including a reassessment of US commitments to Europe and a pointed critique of the European project. Notably, the document issues a stark warning that Europe faces the risk of “civilizational erasure” and raises doubts about whether key European states will possess the economic and military strength needed to remain reliable allies. In this rapid-response virtual event, hosted by the American Academy in Berlin and moderated by Academy President Daniel Benjamin, experts will examine the NSS in its totality, paying special attention to the implications for European security, the transatlantic alliance, and Germany’s role. Discussion will focus on how the strategy challenges established assumptions underpinning NATO cooperation and European defense posture. The event aims to shed light on potential consequences for Germany’s own security and defense policy, and on Europe as whole might respond.

Stephen Biegun, Former United States Deputy Secretary of State

Stephen E. Biegun has more than three decades of international affairs experience in government and the private sector, including high-level government service with the Department of State, the White House, and the United States Congress.  In 2021, Mr. Biegun concluded his most recent government service as the United States Deputy Secretary of State, to which he was confirmed by the Senate with a strong bipartisan vote of 90-3.  In addition to his government service, Mr. Biegun also worked for two decades in the private sector as a corporate vice president with both Ford Motor Company and The Boeing Company.  As the State Deparrment’s second ranking diplomat, Mr. Biegun oversaw the full breadth of national security and foreign policy decision-making, reporting to the Secretary of State.  He led the State Department response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the evacuation of over 100,000 Americans stranded abroad during the shut down of travel.  His other principal efforts were focussed on the Korean Peninsula, US-China relations, the broader Indo-Pacific region, US-Russia relations, Eastern Europe, and arms control. Biegun began his career as a foreign policy specialist with the United States Congress, with a focus on Russia, the former Soviet Union, and Europe, ultimately rising to a number of senior-level positions including chief of staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as the national security advisor to the Senate Majority Leader.  He spent two years as the Executive Secretary of the White House National Security Council, serving as an advisor and deputy to the National Security Advisor.  In the early 1990s, Mr. Biegun led a Moscow-based technical assistance program working closely with Russia’s first post-Soviet government. Biegun has volunteered as a board member for several international, national, and local non-profit organizations and currently serves on the boards of the National Endowment for Democracy, the International Rescue Committee, and the German Marshall Fund.  He graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian language and Political Science.

Emily Haber, Former Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United States and Trustee, American Academy in Berlin

Ambassador Dr. Emily M. Haber was the German Ambassador to the United States from 2018 to 2023. Immediately prior to this, Ambassador Haber, a career Foreign Service Officer, was deployed to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, serving as State Secretary overseeing security and migration at the height of the refugee crisis in Europe. In this capacity, she worked closely with the U.S. administration on topics ranging from the fight against international terrorism to global cyberattacks and cybersecurity. In 2009, she was appointed Political Director and, in 2011, State Secretary at the Foreign Office, the first woman to hold either post. Ambassador Haber attended schools in New Delhi, Bonn, Paris, Brussels, Washington, and Athens. From 1975 to 1980, she studied history and ethnology in Cologne, earning her Ph.D. with a dissertation on German foreign policy during the Morocco crisis on the eve of World War I.

Mara Karlin, Professor, Foreign Policy Institute, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University; former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development and Principal Director for Strategy, United States Department of Defense

Mara Karlin is a professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. She served in national security roles for six US secretaries of defense, advising on policies spanning strategic planning, defense budgeting, the future of conflict, and regional affairs involving the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Most recently, she served as assistant secretary of defense for Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities, leading the development and implementation of the 2022 National Defense Strategy, Nuclear Posture Review, and Missile Defense Review, the first time all major strategies were conducted simultaneously. She advised the secretary of defense on the forces, plans, posture, emerging capabilities, and security cooperation activities necessary to implement the defense strategy. Karlin also oversaw the formation of a new emerging capabilities policy office; a historic modernization of US force posture in the Indo-Pacific; implementation of the Australia-United Kingdom-United States partnership (AUKUS); reform of the security cooperation workforce; and development of national and defense strategic guidance documents.

William Wohlforth, Daniel Webster Professor of Government, Dartmouth College

A member of the Dartmouth College Government Department’s faculty since 2000, William Wohlforth teaches and researches international relations, with an emphasis on international security and foreign policy. Professor Wohlforth has taught at Princeton and Georgetown, graduated with a degree in international relations from Beloit College.  He has worked as a legislative aid in the US House of Representatives and did his graduate work at Yale University, earning an M.A. in international relations and PhD in Political Science.

Daniel Benjamin, President, American Academy in Berlin

Daniel Benjamin is the president of the American Academy in Berlin. Prior to his Academy appointment, Benjamin was the Norman E. McCulloch Jr. Director of the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College. Before he arrived at Dartmouth, in 2013, he served as Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the US Department of State from 2009-2012. Benjamin was a senior fellow in foreign policy studies and director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution. He has also been a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a fellow at the United States Institute of Peace. He spent more than five years on the National Security Council staff in the 1990s, where he served first as foreign-policy speechwriter and special assistant to President Bill Clinton and later as director for transnational threats. Benjamin has written extensively on US foreign policy, terrorism, and international affairs. He is co-author of The Age of Sacred Terror (2002), which was awarded the Arthur Ross Prize of the Council on Foreign Relations and named a 2002 New York Times Notable Book and a Washington Post Best Book. He also co-authored “The Next Attack: The Failure of the War on Terror and a Strategy for Getting It Right” (2005), a Washington Post and Financial Times Best Book of the Year and a finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize. His essays have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, New York Review of Books, Politico, and many other publications.