CHICAGO-AREA BADGERS ANALYZE THE TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONSHIP

About 75 UW-Madison alumni, faculty, and friends gathered in Chicago, Tuesday, March 16, for a special evening of Badger-style analysis. The occasion, featuring a talk by UW-Madison political scientist Mark Pollack, was the third in a series of discussions on transatlantic politics, part of the Division of International Studies' Madison Transatlantic Initiative. But the gathering also offered a special, perhaps even a first, opportunity for alumni with international interests to meet one another and forge new ties, as well as to exchange ideas.

The event, sponsored by the UW's International Studies and the Wisconsin Alumni Association, was held in the law offices of Baker & McKenzie, in Chicago's Prudential Building, and was hosted by Richard Franklin, a partner in the firm and a member of International Studies' International Advisory Board. Franklin said he was pleased to be the host not just out of affection for the UW but out of appreciation for its significant contribution to Chicago. "We send great numbers of students from the Chicago area to study at the University of Wisconsin, and we here in Chicago are the recipients, both of the knowledge that those students gain and of the other intellectual resources of the University of Wisconsin," Franklin said. Franklin also spoke of his firm's transatlantic connections, with 25 offices in the principal business centers of Europe as well as a large number of lawyers in Chicago with interests focused directly on the transatlantic representation of clients."

Gilles Bousquet, dean of International Studies, acknowledged that not only is Madison a global university but so are many of its 300,000 alumni, and that it was his goal to provide venues for scholars, policymakers and citizens to get together to reflect and dialogue on international affairs. "Fostering a culture of active mutual understanding across the globe is crucial to restoring a measure of stability, and to promoting a culture of peace," Bousquet said. He described the Madison Transatlantic Initiative, being co-sponsored by the four member programs of the UW's European Studies Alliance, as an important initiative examining why the partnership between North America and Europe had deteriorated recently, and explained that the Division of International Studies had organized a series of meetings on both sides of the Atlantic to understand the breach in the relationship.

Bousquet introduced Mark Pollack, an associate professor of political science, calling him one of the UW's foremost architects of its European Studies program. Pollack, the author of several recent books, including Europe, America Bush: Transatlantic Relations in the 21st Century, began by defining Europe as the U.S.' closest military ally - all 15 current European Union members have troops in Afghanistan, according to Pollack - and its largest trading partner. He then challenged recent assumptions about transatlantic political tensions by stating that the U.S. and Europe have been at loggerheads before. "The history of transatlantic relations is largely a history of crisis," Pollack said, listing current differences of opinion over the global environment, the International Criminal Court, and international trade issues, as well as the war in Iraq. Pollack added that differences over Iraq, which have alienated the U.S. from Europe, also have divided Europeans among themselves.

Speaking within days of terrorist bombings in Madrid that killed nearly 200 people, Pollack said the attacks might lead Europeans to adopt a similar approach to terrorism as the U.S. after 9/11, and cement U.S.-European Union cooperation on anti-terrorism. But he stated that there might be another response, "which is that the Spanish people and other Europeans will decide that the United States is increasingly dragging them into dangerous and unnecessary conflicts." "They may decide that Europe is safer providing for its own security," Pollack said.

Pollack concluded by saying that transatlantic relations would probably remain "deeply troubled" until the U.S. government recognized European allies as partners "to be consulted rather than lackeys to be bullied." For their part, Pollack said, Europeans had to deliver a "coherent foreign policy and military capabilities that demand respect in Washington."

An expansive Q&A session followed the talk, with questions ranging widely. Gilles Bousquet suggested there would be more opportunities for discussion at future get-togethers, and announced the formation of a small group of study abroad alumni in the Chicago area to help the UW and its alums further reconnect.

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