Coercion, Cohesion and Conflict: the Future of the Transatlantic Community

In October 2009, the Norwegian Nobel Committee surprised the world by awarding U.S. President Barack Obama its peace prize. The committee explained that the award was as much for Obama’s promise as for his achievements—for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” Thus, the Obama administration has signaled a shift not only in political priorities but a new approach to international relations which includes a larger reliance on formal channels of cooperation than its predecessor. This also provides an opportunity for the reinvigoration and expansion of transatlantic relations.


Transatlantic relations are not, and have never been, only a question of north-north relations, or of the US and Western Europe. Historically, Latin America is closely connected to Europe, particularly through the Ibero-American community. Furthermore, the political development in Latin America, especially in the last decade, has caused important changes and increasing complexity in inter-American as well as transatlantic relations, as, for example, in the global strategy of Brazil’s president, Lula da Silva.


The present series of workshops and the conference address why that community matters and what makes it fragile, conflicted, and contested. The aim is to engage in a discussion of transatlantic relations and interaction on multiple levels—from the existential to practical—in order to provide communities inside as well as outside academia with insight into perhaps the most important political, diplomatic, military, and cultural relationship of the last 100 years.