“We Must All Hang Together”: Transatlantic Relations in a New Era of Geopolitics

“We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” – Benjamin Franklin

Moving forward, North America and Europe must come together again to face the challenges presented by China and Russia. What will the new transatlantic agenda look like? What must be our highest priorities? What should the EU’s future foreign policy focus on? Ambassador Boris Ruge, Vice-Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, makes the case for an ambitious transatlantic agenda and looks forward to a lively discussion with the audience.

Event Recording

Speaker

Ambassador Boris Ruge is Vice-Chairman of the Munich Security Conference. He has served in this position since August 2019. He previously served as Director Middle East/North Africa at the Foreign Office in Berlin, as German Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and as Deputy Ambassador to the US.

Having joined the Foreign Service in 1989, much of Ambassador Ruge’s career has been focused on security policy and stabilization. He worked at NATO Headquarters in Brussels during the Kosovo air campaign and later served as Chief Political Adviser to two successive Commanders of the Kosovo Force and as Head of the Political Department at the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina. At the Foreign Office he was also in charge of European security and defence issues.

Following undergraduate studies at the University of Cologne, Ambassador Ruge received a master’s degree in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He holds a diploma in international relations from the Bologna Center of the Johns Hopkins University and was a participant in the 2005 course of the Royal College of Defence Studies in London. He is married and has three daughters and one son.

Reading Material | Prepare for this Talk

Those planning to attend this event may find the following materials helpful:

• “Zeitenwende”: A Munich Security Council report on the future of German and European foreign policy
• Full Zeitwende report
• Zeitwende report executive summary
• Op-Ed | Coronavirus crisis: For Europe, it’s a question of survival
• Report | “More Ambition, Please! Toward a New Agreement between Germany and the United States”

This event is part of UNC CES’ Europe Week 2021. It is co-sponsored by the UNC Curriculum in Global Studies, the UNC Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense, the UNC Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures, the UNC Department of Romance Studies, UNC Global, and the UNC Russian Flagship Program.