Lecture Announcement
Sophia University, European Institute

>From Indispensable to Neglectable? Europe and the
United States

Niels Annen (Research Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States)

Date/Time
24 November 2010, 18:00h

Venue
Sophia University, Yotsuya Campus
Bldg. 12, Room no. 403
Directions to Yotsuya campus:
http://www.sophia.ac.jp/eng/info/access/directions/access_yotsuya
Campus map:
http://www.sophia.ac.jp/eng/info/access/map/map_yotsuya

For more than sixty years the common enemy of the Communist bloc bound the US and its European allies together, and leaders from both side of the Atlantic took this relationship for granted. Today there is criticism that President Obama shows no enthusiasm for the transatlantic relation and lacks emotional ties with Europe. But what sounds disappointing in the first place is nothing more than the consequence of NATO's success. Europe's security is no longer threatened. Instead of being nostalgic about the Cold-War-solidarity, the new situation should be seen as a chance. It opens the way for a necessary evaluation of structures and readjusting political priorities. The transatlantic relationship will not lose its importance, but it certainly needs a new foundation.

Niels Annen is Research Fellow of The German Marshall Fund of the United States. He is also a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany's and a former Member of the German Bundestag. He studied History, Geography and Latin-American Studies at the University of Hamburg and Universidad of Complutense Madrid in Spain. See
http://www.gmfus.org/cs/experts/expert_profile?expert.id=67 for details.

No registration necessary
Lecture will be given in English

Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture 7-1, Kioicho, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 102-8554 http://www.info.sophia.ac.jp/ei/