The Program on Transatlantic Relations was created at the end of 2007 as a result of an initiating donation by Pierre Keller, a former Fellow of the Center who is presently a member of the Center’s Advisory Committee. Working in close cooperation with the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies and Harvard Kennedy School, the program endeavors to strengthen research and teaching on transatlantic issues within the University, focusing on European and North American social, economic, political, security, and environmental issues that are of particular relevance to the transatlantic relationship.

The program supports visiting scholars and public servants who have distinguished themselves in the field of transatlantic relations. In spring 2009, the first Pierre Keller Visiting Professor, Dominique Moïsi, senior adviser of the French Institute for International Relations, taught two courses in the Department of Government. The program also facilitates research appointments for Europeans at the University (including Fritz Thyssen Fellows and Schumpeter Fellow), supports research on transatlantic issues by Harvard faculty and students and visits of European Union representatives within the Challenges of the Twenty-First Century seminar series, and sponsors the Weatherhead Center’s Transatlantic Relations Seminar.

Special events organized by the program include the Paul-Henri Spaak Lecture Series. European Commission President José Manuel Barroso was the speaker in September 2008. The program also supports the Study Group on the Future of the European Union, co-sponsored with the Center for European Studies, in collaboration with experts from the greater Boston community, and the Weatherhead Center’s annual June conference in Talloires, France.

The Transatlantic Relations Seminar, the Challenges of the Twenty-First Century seminar series, and the Paul-Henri Spaak Lecture Series are generously supported by the Nicolas Janssen Family Fund of Brussels.

The program’s director is Karl Kaiser, adjunct professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Related Links

• Current Program Affiliates
• Seminar: Challenges of the Twenty-First Century
• Seminar: Study Group on the Future of the European Union
• Seminar: Transatlantic Relations Seminar
• Lectureship: Paul-Henri Spaak Lecture Series