After a visit to Washington and meetings with experts and decision-makers, the Centre’s Director, Linas Kojala, and Senior Project Manager Simona Merkinaitė today shared their insights from the trip. The discussion mostly focused on the issues regarding the US presidential election, the future of NATO, and support for Ukraine.
The participants of the conversation emphasized that when discussing the US elections and evaluating the candidates, a more complex approach is needed to avoid harmful binary evaluations, clearly dividing them into pro- or anti-Russian, supporting or not supporting NATO, etc. It is also important to realize that the outcome of an election can often depend on small details until the election itself is significantly less time away, and that after the election, the US is predicted to be strongly inwardly focused.
Regarding transatlantic relations, it was highlighted that in order to understand what determines America’s support or non-support for Europe, it is important to look at the long-term transformations taking place in US society. It is more often dependent on, for example, American ties to Europe than political forces, so the focus should not only be on individual administrations and their policies. Europe is still important to the US, but it is important to consider that it is China that is seen as a dominant strategic actor that would allow the US to remain an important player in international relations.