NATO, Trump and 'Article 5%': What are the implications for European security?
Since Donald Trump entered office six months ago, he has cast doubt on the US commitment to the NATO alliance and applied pressure on European countries to increase their defence spending. This dominated June's NATO summit in the Hague which took place during a time of acute global security challenges, from Russia's war in Ukraine to escalating conflict in the Middle East.
To explore the complexities of American politics and foreign policy and how it affects Europe, Anand Menon is joined by Constanze Stelzenmüller, a leading expert on German, European, and trans-Atlantic foreign and security policy and strategy and Director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution.
They reflect on the NATO summit and its remarkably brief summit declaration, the transformation of Article V to 'Article 5%', and whether Europeans can both reach the new 5% spending target and spend the money efficiently. They also discuss whether Europe can rely on the US as a security partner, Trump's foreign policy agenda, and the connection between the MAGA right and populist right parties in Europe and ask whether the UK-US relationship is really all that special.
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Ivan Rogers on the UK-EU relationship
The first post-Brexit UK-EU summit on Monday 19 May was heralded as a key milestone in UK-EU relations. But what exactly did it achieve? To analyse this in-depth, director Anand Menon is joined by Sir Ivan Rogers, former UK Permanent Representative to the EU, who, in Anand's words, "knows more about the EU than anyone in the world."
They discuss what it is like negotiating these deals behind the scenes, why the Defence and Security Pact is important for the UK but a little lacking in substance, the overreaction of parts of the media and political right, what the agreements signed actually mean in terms of dynamic alignment, why energy negotiations were a surprising win, and, crucially, what comes next now that leaders have paved the way to what are likely to be highly difficult and technical negotiations with our European partners.
Listen now for everything you need to know about the UK-EU summit and the future of the UK-EU relationship..
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Scott Lucas on Trump 2.0
The first three months of Donald Trump's presidency have been remarkable. But what are the key differences between Trump 1.0 and Trump 2.0? How have the Democrats and other Republicans responded? As Trump and his team hollow out the US state, why have Congress and the courts not been able to slow his agenda? And what does his willingness to flout judicial orders mean for the checks and balances of democracy in the US?
On this episode of The UK in a Changing Europe podcast, director Anand Menon speaks to Scott Lucas, Professor of American Studies at the Clinton Institute at University College Dublin to find out more about the impact Trump is having on the US state and the US. Listen in to hear his expert analysis.
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German election special: with Theo Koll and Jill Rutter
On this episode of The UK in a Changing Europe podcast, leading German journalist and television presenter Theo Koll joins our host Jill Rutter to discuss the upcoming election in Germany that has seen one of the most volatile election campaigns the country has experienced.
What can we expect from Friedrich Merz's conservative Christian Democrats, currently the frontrunners to win? How much of an impact is the far-right party 'Alternative for Germany' having? And what is the most important issue for German voters? Listen in for all of this and more.
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Minorities report: the attitudes of Britain’s ethnic minority population
In this episode of the UK in a Changing Europe podcast, Anand Menon sits down with UKICE researchers Sophie Stowers and Zain Mohyuddin to discuss their recently published 'Minorities report: the attitudes of Britain’s ethnic minority population'.
Research suggests that ethnic minority voters often have political and social views at variance with those held by the population as a whole, and indeed by other ethnic groups. Yet we often lack the data to examine these attitudes and how they differ.
The 'Minorities report: the attitudes of Britain’s ethnic minority population' aims to set that right. It attempts to look at the diversity of political opinion, social values and economic preferences not just between Britain’s white and non-white population, but between different ethnic and religious groups. The report looks not just at voting and elections, but more broadly at questions of identity, tolerance, and experiences of race and discrimination. It covers political views and values at both the 2019 and 2024 elections, questions of identity, being ‘British’, discrimination and prejudice, and economic preferences and social values.
Access a PDF copy of the report in full here: https://ukandeu.ac.uk/reports/minorities-report-the-attitudes-of-britains-ethnic-minority-population/
In each episode of The UK in a Changing Europe Podcast, formerly known as UKICE (I Tell), we sit down with a new guest and explore their area of expertise. We investigate the key issues and discuss how and why it helps us better understand our society. The podcast was cited by the Guardian in 2022 as one of the best podcasts to understand British politics.
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