Since 2004, the Center for the Study of the Presidency has been working with senior decision-makers in the United States and Europe to address disconnects between the EU, NATO and the G8. With a focus on foreign policy, homeland security and the Middle East, the first round of these consultations resulted in the Center publication, Maximizing NATO for the War on Terror, which recommended steps to pursue shared security interests through better leadership and greater Executive branch coordination. In 2006, Center staff followed up on those efforts with senior European allies in Brussels, London, Berlin and Lisbon, with a goal of strengthening multilateral leadership.
The Center is now building on these efforts with its newest program, the Europe Exchange Program on the American Presidential Transition. This program will bring fifteen exceptional young leaders (ages 30-40) from positions of policy planning in European governments or in the policy-research community to the United States to meet with the transition leadership of the Presidential candidates and the next Administration to strengthen the relationship and communication between governmental, policy and academic institutions in the U.S. and abroad. The goal of this initiative is to explore avenues for European and U.S. cooperation to prevent communication breakdowns between transatlantic governments during the American Presidential transition.
This program will offer an incomparable vantage point on the 2008 Presidential transition for the European leaders of tomorrow. Participants will spend one week in November 2008 meeting with experts on Presidential transitions and American politics; potential speakers include members of the transition planning committees for the major Presidential candidates, Members of Congress or their staffs, high-ranking non-political members of the federal government such as Government Accountability Office Comptroller General David Walker, eminent scholars such as Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann, and Center President David M. Abshire (who headed the part of President Ronald Reagan's transition that selected his national security team and served as U.S. Ambassador to NATO). In the spring of 2009, participants will return to Washington, DC, for a week to observe first-hand the transition process in the Cabinet departments and Executive agencies. During this second visit, they will meet again with many of the individuals from their first visit, which will allow them to build on the previous discussions and evaluate changing American political dynamics.
While in the U.S., the Center will work to ensure that these leaders discuss critical issues such as support for peacekeeping and reconstruction missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, defense against nuclear terrorism, energy security and currency regulation in effort to present and candidly discuss the prevailing attitudes in Washington as well as in Brussels and other European capitals. Within the frame of "transition," these visitors will be exposed to the technical workings of the U.S. government, from the personnel selection process to developing agendas for the next administration.
The Center has received funding from the Luso-America Foundation to support two participants, and will be seeking further funding to sponsor each participant. The Center is also partnering with the Meridian International Center, which has coordinated numerous international political and cultural exchanges, to recruit promising candidates and plan the agenda.
For more information on the Center's Transatlantic initiative, please contact Alex Douville, Director of Policy Studies, via e-mail or Sarah Ficenec, Associate Director for Policy and Communications, via e-mail. Both can also be reached at 202-872-9800.
