Partnership in Leadership: A new Beginning – New impetus for transatlantic relations

The Task Force on the Future of Transatlantic Relations published its final report on December 2, 2020, at the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies' International Security Forum Bonn.

On September 24, 2020, the Task Force had been constituted at the invitation of the Henry Kissinger Professorship at the University of Bonn, composed of cross-disciplinary national and international figures from academia, business, and technology. In the weeks that followed, the Task Force took stock of the implications of current policy developments in the United States.

Its goal was to analyze current and future U.S. strategic developments and ask how they might affect future domestic policy issue-setting and the global positioning of the United States. The task force examined resulting, possible consequences for the further shaping of the transatlantic relationship. It focused on how the future relationship between Europe and America will affect the German-American relationship, national and international issue-setting, and cooperation opportunities and economic development in North Rhine-Westphalia. Another guiding factor was the consideration that the presidential elections in the United States on November 3 and the upcoming inauguration of Joe Biden will continue to place transatlantic relations and their future development prominently at the center of political and public debate in Germany.

The Task Force's inaugural event was held in Bonn on September 24-25, 2020, in conjunction with the Dialogue for Strategic Foresight Colloquium hosted by the Henry Kissinger Professorship. In three working group sessions on October 8, October 28, and October 30, the main topics of the report were discussed in greater depth in an exchange with other experts from politics, business, and academia. The individual sessions focused on the topics "America after the Elections: The Inner Basis of U.S. Foreign Policy," "Labor, Research, Innovation, Technology: New Realities and New Ideas," and "Transatlantic Relations in Geostrategic Transition: Constants, Changes, and Options for Action."

The report of the Task Force also marks the launch of the transatlantic work program of the Henry Kissinger Professorship with the goal of establishing a new research focus at CASSIS of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.

Mail: transat@uni-bonn.de