2020 Transatlantic Security Jam: securing the Post-COVID Future

The European Commission embarked on its new mandate setting a clear objective: to become a Geopolitical Commission. However, no one could predict to what extent its global role would be tested within its first year of action. By challenging the EU’s effectiveness in times of crisis, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is not only testing its legitimacy and solidarity but also its role as a global actor. The way the EU approaches the crisis will determine its stand on transatlantic relations and its ambitions for strategic autonomy.

How has the COVID-19 crisis affected the EU’s global role?
How will the crisis shape its ambitions of strategic autonomy?
How can the EU increase the internal cohesion between its member states?
Who is winning the global battle of narratives in the crisis? Can the EU keep up its own narrative?

Topic: AI-enabled Technologies and Surveillance in the EU in Times of the Pandemic: Between Hype and Reality

Topic: The EU’s global role post COVID-19

Topic: The United Nations in the time of COVID-19: addressing the global threat to peace and security or struggling to respond?

Topic: Lessons and implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for EU security and defence

Topic: The coronavirus pandemic will determine the fate of the European Union. Will Germany accept leadership in the EU to support unity, and take the steps necessary to convince the German public that the collapse of the European market for its exports will return Germany to the role of the economic “sick man of Europe?”

Topic: How the Covid-19 crisis will change NATO’s future outlook

Topic: The EU’s Role in Shaping our Polycentric Future: Insights from Elinor Ostrom

Topic: Terrorism in times of Corona: The development of the terrorist threat as a result of the COVID-19 crisis and the EU’s response

Topic: Taking positive and negative examples of cooperation from the United States and parts of Asia, while examining the impacts of hyper-autonomy on public health and international security.

Topic: How Covid-19, as the first truly global existential crisis in a century, risks re-configuring traditional, long-held, at times toxic red lines on every continent.

Topic: Stronger out than into the Corona crisis: The EU needs more internal cohesion, more solidarity and a strong external footprint.

Topic: Failing to exercise and enhance responsibility, resilience, and readiness, Europe risks compromising its security and falling into oblivion in the post-COVID-19 world. From defence budgets to dangerous dependencies, now is the time to evaluate the lessons of crises present and past.

Topic: Will this crisis shake up our governments and ensure that in the future our armed forces will have the necessary resources to stand ready for the next crisis? Political leaders will have to make tough choices to avoid social dramas on the one hand and restore the economy on the other. How can armed forces function in this time of crisis and at the same time prepare for and execute their essential missions?

Topic: Transatlantic Cooperation in a post Covid-19 environment: an industry perspective

Topic: EU-Canada relations : an example of joint action in addressing the pandemic and its consequences based on shared values and a strengthening of global coordination

Topic: Could Covid-19 lead to disarmament as countries have to cut their defence budgets? Which is and will be the role and influence of the EU and the Europeans global debates leading to disarmament as 5 members of the UNSC are from Europe?

The European Commission embarked on its new mandate setting a clear objective: to become a Geopolitical Commission. However, no one could predict to what extent its global role would be tested within its first year of action. By challenging the EU’s effectiveness in times of crisis, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is not only testing its legitimacy and solidarity but also its role as a global actor. The way the EU approaches the crisis will determine its stand on transatlantic relations and its ambitions for strategic autonomy.

• How has the COVID-19 crisis affected the EU’s global role?
• How will the crisis shape its ambitions of strategic autonomy?
• How can the EU increase the internal cohesion between its member states?
• Who is winning the global battle of narratives in the crisis? Can the EU keep up its own narrative?

Topic: We cannot afford efforts related to the corona crisis to crowd out efforts related to two other existential threats: nuclear weapons and climate change.

Topic: Strengthening EU countries’ intelligence cooperation to create an effective, integrated intelligence system as a tool for the EU and its Member States to counter and prevent future political and economic security threats, in the post-COVID era.

Topic: Ensuring democratic communication dominance in the (dis)information environment, and managing risks associated with vulnerabilities created by the crisis that can be exploited by actors to harm EU cohesion through disinformation and influence campaigns in other domains.

Topic: What lessons can we draw from the management of the pandemic for future EU-UK cooperation post-Brexit?

Topic: What lessons can we draw from the management of the pandemic for future EU-UK cooperation post-Brexit?

Topic: Information sovereignty futures. What are scenarios for democracies’ disinformation resilience when COVID19 undermines media market structure.”