As was the case in 2016 and 2020, the result of the 2024 United States presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump could have profound implications for American foreign policy and the future of the country’s broader global role. While Americans tend to base their votes on domestic issues in general elections, pertinent grand-strategic and foreign policy questions are also on the ballot. These include, for instance, the geographical scope of US global engagement, the US stance on multilateral institutions, the future of the transatlantic relationship and US support for Ukraine. This seminar will explore the possible trajectories of US foreign policy vis-à-vis Europe in 2025 and beyond. How would Biden’s and Trump’s policies towards US allies differ? How would the two presidents position themselves in response to Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine? What impact could the election have on US priorities in different strategic theatres, especially in Europe and the Indo-Pacific?
Puhujat
Dr. Garret J. Martin is a Senior Professorial Lecturer, and the Co-Director of the Transatlantic Policy Center, in the School of International Service of American University. He has written widely on transatlantic relations and Europe, both in the field of history and contemporary affairs, and focuses in particular on security, US foreign policy, NATO, European politics, European foreign policy and defense, Europe, the European Union, France and the UK. He is a frequent media commentator, providing analysis and interviews, among others, to NPR, the BBC, CNN, Voice of America, USA Today, WUSA, ABC News Australia and France 24.
Matti Pesu is a Leading Researcher in the Finnish foreign policy, Northern European security, and NATO research programme at FIIA. From May 2022 to April 2023, he led a research project analyzing Finland’s nascent NATO policy and the country’s evolving role in Euro-Atlantic security. Since the beginning of 2023, Pesu has been leading FIIA’s Nordic network. Pesu has worked at FIIA since 2017 as a Visiting Fellow, Research Fellow, and Senior Research Fellow. He has also worked at Tampere University, the European Commission, and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. In 2012–2018, he was actively involved in the leading Finnish online magazine on international politics, The Ulkopolitist¸ most recently as a Managing Editor.
He has published extensively on Finnish foreign, security, and defence policy, defence cooperation, Baltic Sea security, and Euro-Atlantic security. Pesu’s writing has appeared in publications such as War on the Rocks, the National Interest, and Diplomacy & Statecraft. He is a frequent commentator on Finnish and Northern European security matters, and, in addition to the Finnish and Nordic media, he has provided analysis for the Wall Street Journal, BBC, Newsweek, Reuters, and the Associated Press, among others.
Tyyne Karjalainen is a Researcher in the European Union research programme at FIIA. Her research focuses on European Union foreign and security policy, EU enlargement and differentiated integration in the EU. Her publications also cover peace-building, crisis management and peace mediation. Before joining FIIA, Karjalainen worked at the Civilian Security Sector Reform Component at the European Union Advisory Mission (EUAM) in Ukraine, the Research and Development Unit of the Crisis Management Centre (CMC) Finland, and the Finnish Permanent Representation to the United Nations in New York. Karjalainen is a doctoral student in political science at the University of Turku focusing on the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood policies. She holds a degree from the Master’s Programme in Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research at the University of Tampere.
Ville Sinkkonen is a Senior Research Fellow at FIIA, Center on US Politics and Power. His research focuses on US foreign policy, great-power politics, normative power, and the politics of trust in international relations. Sinkkonen is the author of A Comparative Appraisal of Normative Power: The European Union, the United States and the January 25th, 2011 Revolution in Egypt (Brill, 2015), and his work has been published in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, the Journal of Transatlantic Studies, and European Foreign Affairs Review, among others. He holds an LL.D. (International Law) from the University of Turku, where he defended his doctoral dissertation Failing hegemony? Four essays on the global engagement of the United States of America in the 21st Century in December 2020. Sinkkonen is the chairperson of the Finnish International Studies Association (FISA) and co-editor of the Nordic Review of International Studies (NRIS).