Shifting Perspectives in Transatlantic Relations: The Transatlantic Student Summit 2021

Engaging with global affairs in regional settings 

The global order is changing, and the transatlantic relationship must adapt accordingly. Transformations on the global level as well as within transatlantic societies are posing challenges but also opportunities for renewed transatlantic engagement. Moreover, many global dynamics exert regionally specific implications. They call for innovative assessment and research to make global affairs accessible to more regionally diverse and local audiences.  

The 2021 Transatlantic Student Summit between Ohio University, Leipzig University, and DAIS (virtually) summoned more than 40 students from various regions and backgrounds at DAIS’ Zoom-facilities. Together with experts and practitioners from Central Germany, the American Midwest, Berlin, Chicago and beyond, our student teams and faculty developed innovative approaches to issues of mutual concern.

The central academic and professional merits of the Transatlantic Student Summit lie in a truly international collaborative work experience on concrete and real-life issues, combining academic and practical applications and perspectives. But beyond these more technical objectives, the program always aspires to be about much more: developing networks and friendships through the exchange of knowledge and perspectives to foster coherence, mutual understanding, and common progress—virtues of timeless relevance for liberal and open societies.

What did we do? 

At the 2021 Transatlantic Student Summit, four themes of input guided our inquiry. We looked at the global economy of the transatlantic relationship, at policies that seek to counter the climate crisis, at notions of security in the turbulent environment of the new decade, and political movements that exert disruptive influences—domestically and internationally. 

This inquiry benefited from our truly multidisciplinary approach that connected perspectives from cultural studies, political science, economics, and history. In weekly lectures and matching seminar sessions, we de- and reconstructed academic and societal perspectives on spheres of tension and cooperation for transatlantic stakeholders. In that, we again emphasized the need for regional contextualization of high-politics debates.  

From an economic perspective, looming financial crises, creeping protectionism, and a variety of globalization backlashes exert sustained influence in the recent decade. Politically, a return to multipolarity, the rise of China, gains for authoritarian political cultures and losses for liberal democratic arrangements, and changes in the U.S.' willingness to portray its power (hard and soft) abroad all put pressure on the global framework. 

Watch our students discuss with Jun.-Prof. Philipp M. Richter. He holds the Chair of International Economics at Technical University Dresden.

In facing the climate and biodiversity crisis, ecology and sustainability issues lie at the intersection of security, trade, technology, and energy. Ecological aspects concern thosethe named areas of human activity and their relation with natural resources, air, water, land, flora and fauna. How humans interact with their environment has sometimes been underrepresented in more orthodox conceptions of geopolitics, economics, and other academic fields and societal discourse. However, most recently latest with the proposed Green (New) Deal(s), ecology and sustainability issues have arrived at the forefront of the global and transatlantic political debate about how to steer transformations like the decarbonization of societies ahead. 

Watch our students discuss with Dr. Sabrina Schulz. She is the executive director of the United Nation’s SDSN Germany.

Notions of Security are transforming amidst the continuing turbulences in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the political upheaval in previous years there is a growing understanding among societies on both sides of the Atlantic that basic concepts of security and diplomacy are in fundamental transition. How Europe understands the United States, and how the U.S. and Europe understand themselves, is intricately connected to the tectonic shifts taking place in the norms, institutions, and interests. These shifts are shaping the debate about how to define and pursue or construct security and diplomacy in the coming decades. 

For example, the debate pits the liberal world order built up after World War II against more authoritarian leaning political cultures from China to Russia, and a wave of populist politics from the Philippines to Poland and from America to Great Britain. Within our societies, certain regions and populations mark the return of a political geography unexpected for many. Support for movements that promote tighter migration or border policies flourishes in constituencies that express resentment from feeling left-behind by structural changes of recent decades. The debate involves the very building blocks for any new model of security for international cooperation: what values should receive priority, what sort of institutions should be promoted, what are the interests of participants that should be pursued.

Watch our students discuss with Professor Nukhet Sandal. She is Associate Professor and Chair of Political Science at Ohio University.

From the opioid crisis to the phasing out of coal to wide-spread loss of industries and exoduses of (young) people, more regional and rural settings are challenged by global dynamics and structural changes both in the U.S. and in Europe. Much of the 21st-century global economy incentivizes the concentration of jobs in metropolises with highly educated work forces. As rural-urban divisions are deepening along the fault lines of inequality, non-access to critical infrastructure, and disengagement from democratic institutions, deliberative systems and social cohesion are being challenged.

Together with Michael Neblo, Professor of Political Science at the Ohio State University, we’ve not only discussed his work as Director at the center for Democractic Engagement and Accountability. We have also debated on how deliberative political processes can proactively encounter polarization and contribute to social cohesion via innovative ways to engage underrepresented constituencies. 

Learn more about Prof. Neblo’s work here.

We would like to thank the TSS-student cohort who made the program a true success. Deep-felt gratitude goes out to Prof. Nukhet Sandal, Prof. Philipp M. Richter, Dr. Sabrina Schulz, Prof. Michael Neblo who enlightened us with their expert input.  We could not be happier about our partners at Ohio University and Leipzig University who worked tirelessly on keeping this special program alive despite pandemic circumstances. Special thanks go out to the US Mission and the German Foreign Office, as well as the Saxony State Chancellery, who generously supported this year’s program.

Student Voices: For the Transatlantic Relationship 

Throughout the program, our student teams created a diverse set of policy recommendations that tackled, amongst others, the topics of mitigating damage to forest ecosystems, threats emerging from the spread of conspiracy theories and disinformation campaigns, the sustainability of energy sources, and the issue of human rights and the rise of China. 

Let us hear what our students Josua, Alona, and Ezra say: 

Going forward: Networks and Confidence for the New Decade

To see what has been and what can be achieved in the context of this exchange project is a great motivation. We would like to extend our partnerships to bolster the collaborative efforts on both sides of the Atlantic. There are enticing opportunities to include more shoulders in facilitating global-regional exchange. Together with our partners from academia, think tanks, diplomatic missions, and civil society we are looking forward to a new and fruitful decade of mutual coalescence. 

The COVID-19 pandemic unveiled a plethora of shortcomings in global cooperation, spanning from public health to the economy and social cohesion. Sociopolitical changes have led tolosses for liberal political settings and boosted more authoritarian political cultures. At the same time, new voices have emerged that demand more social and ecological justice, as well as political participation. 

Together, we will continue working on the question of how to address global challenges and their regionally specific implications in order to engage in global-regional dialogue with direct and practical relevance. It is new social and economic relationships like this that are allowing the transatlantic relationship to survive further political (international) instability. 

Get in touch if you would like to learn more about our plans for the 2022 Transatlantic Student Summit. 

fwo@dai-sachsen.de