With geopolitical tensions rising in Eastern Europe, the European Union is struggling to reconcile the need for a more coherent and assertive foreign policy with Member States’ varying strategic interests. Meanwhile, the EU must also balance the crucial yet complex transatlantic relationship.

ENGAGE’s first high-level lecture will feature Robert Cooper, who will shed light on EU diplomatic history between 2002 and 2012 and explain how lessons from Kosovo’s independence, the nuclear negotiations with Iran and Ukraine’s Orange Revolution can advance the quest for European strategic autonomy. Jan Wouters will moderate.

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Speaker

Robert Cooper is a British and European diplomat. In his long and varied career, he penned the first European Security Strategy in 2003, led the EU facilitated dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, and served as special advisor on Burma/Myanmar to Catherine Ashton. He is the author of The Ambassadors and The Breaking of Nations (Atlantic Press 2003), which won the Orwell Prize for Political Writing.

Moderator

Jan Wouters is a professor of International Law and International Organizations, Jean Monnet Chair ad personam EU and Global Governance and founding director of the Institute for International Law and of the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies.