Why Is the World Obsessed with the U.S. Election? Ask Germany

The world is watching the U.S. presidential contest between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris with intense interest. Few countries are tracking the race more closely than Germany, Europe's biggest economy and a founding member of the NATO alliance. Its experiences provide insights into how this election is reverberating globally.

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Host
  • Gabrielle Sierra
    Director, Podcasting
Credits

Asher Ross - Supervising Producer

Markus Zakaria - Audio Producer and Sound Designer

Molly McAnany - Associate Podcast Producer

Episode Guests
  • Liana Fix
    Fellow for Europe
  • Stefan Kornelius
    Foreign Editor, Süddeutsche Zeitung

Show Notes

What the United States does matters, and its vision for the future is set by one person heading the most powerful office in the world: the president. This fall, the U.S. election comes at an inflection point. Faced with ongoing wars abroad, challenges at the southern U.S. border, climate disasters, and growing competition over emerging technology, the next president of the United States will have some big decisions to make. But U.S. citizens aren’t the only ones paying particular attention to this year’s campaigns. The United States’ European allies are watching intently, with particular concern about the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance at a time of ongoing worries about the Russian war in Ukraine, the continent’s largest conflict since World War II.

 

 

From CFR

 

Why the U.S. Presidential Election Matters for Europe,” Council of Councils

 

Diplomacy at the Ballot Box: The Rising Electoral Salience of Foreign Policy,” Council of Councils

 

Jonathan Masters, “What Is NATO?

 

From Our Guests

 

Liana Fix, “A European Plan for Trump (and Harris),” Internationale Politik Quarterly

 

Liana Fix, “As NATO Countries Reach Spending Milestone, Is 2 Percent Enough?,” CFR

 

Read More

 

Experts react: What the presidential debate revealed about how Trump and Harris would conduct foreign policy,” Atlantic Council

 

Mark Leonard, “The U.S. Election Will Overturn Europe’s Strategic Status Quo,” Project Syndicate

 

Patrick Wintour, “Europe watches Harris-Trump debate for clues on direction U.S. may take,” The Guardian

 

Philippe Jacqué and Virginie Malingre, “Europeans are worried about Trump's return to the White House,” Le Monde

 

Watch and Listen

 

Harris-Walz Ticket, a Russian Prisoner Exchange,” Pod Save the World

 

Trump v Harris: The debate that defined the US presidential race,” Today in the EU

Trade

Global trade tensions are boiling over and questions about the United States’ economic future are at the center of the debate. As trade experts question what comes next, it’s important to analyze how the United States got to this point. How have the current administration’s trade policies of today reshaped the global order of tomorrow?

U.S. Trade Deficit

The United States has had a trade deficit, meaning we import more than we export, for the past fifty years. But recently the trade deficit has become a front-burner issue for President Donald Trump and a core reason for his administration’s sweeping tariff policy. When do trade deficits become a problem? Is the United States already at the tipping point?

Trade

With allies and adversaries alike impacted by new economic barriers and tariffs, the global map of U.S. trade relationships hangs in question. As the U.S. rethinks its commitments with its trading partners, allies may seek deals elsewhere, even with historic rivals. Can the president single-handedly tear up a trade deal, and what happens when deals that took decades to craft are suddenly up for renegotiation?

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