Gahl Hodges Burt Panel Discussion

Strategic Interdependence under Strain: Recalibrating the Transatlantic Economic Relationship

Over the last 18 months, Europe and the United States have experienced a severe disruption of the economic relationship built over decades due, above all, to the wide-ranging and unpredictable imposition of tariffs. Many, if not most, analysts expect that at some point, both sides will seek to reestablish a more durable, rules-based, non-zero-sum relationship. This will inevitably require the historic trading partners to return to deliberating on many of the central issues of the period before 2025. The experience of this disruption may also have challenged some previously held views, and recent developments may have shifted thinking too. Europe, in addition to dealing with a newly volatile transatlantic relationship, appears to be feeling its own China shock more acutely. In the US, there remains a sense of the need to deal with national security as well as political imperatives to revise the rules of the road as well as a desire to reestablish trust between the longtime partners. Governments on both sides of the Atlantic must contemplate how they will go forward with industrial policy, economic security tools, and de-risking strategies that promise resilience but also introduce tensions among allies. How can the transatlantic partners sustain an open and prosperous economic relationship while adapting to a world defined by geopolitical competition and economic security concerns?

On this panel, former Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer and other US and European experts will take stock of the profound stress now shaping the transatlantic economic relationship. They will assess how tariffs, geopolitical competition, and domestic political constraints are driving a turn toward industrial policy, de-risking, and economic security tools, and explore where a more durable, rules-based and non-zero-sum framework for cooperation may still be rebuilt.

Panel discussion following a day-long workshop on international economic policy. Workshop supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.