On the 20th March, the European Seminar welcomed Mr. William Drozdiak, President of the American Council of Germany to give a lecture on the new U.S administration`s foreign policy approach and the state of transatlantic relationships. Mr. Drozdiak was Chief Correspondent for the Washington Post between 1990 and 2001 and he had covered all significant events in Europe from the fall of the Berlin Wall and the German Unification to the Balkans War and so on. Recently, he has worked closely with the very much welcomed new U.S. President, Barack Obama`s European affairs advisory team.

Among the many new foreign policy goals that the new U.S. administration has just started pursuing, the three most significant improvements for Europe would be a change in human rights issues, a renewal of the momentum in nuclear disarmament negotiations and a new approach to climate change.

With regards to human right issues, Mr. Drozdiak mentioned not only an improvement in the situation of Guantanamo Bay on the short-term, but even a possibility for the American Congress signing up for the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Although, there is still a considerable domestic opposition to it, Mr. Drozdiak considered the problem as a matter of lack of communication which could be corrected without difficulties.

As to the nuclear disarmament talks, Mr. Drozdiak talked about the necessity of renewing a Russia-U.S. axis as the leader in disarmament. The responsibility of this axis is evident due to the fact that these two powers own 90% of nuclear weapons of the world. There is also a very firm domestic consensus to underpin this initiative.

The U.S. under its new president will also show a stronger leadership in climate change matters; and as Mr. Drozdiak pointed out, the country`s responsibility is evident: U.S. consumption makes up to 25% of green house gas emissions on the world. The number is even more shocking if we consider that U.S population makes up to only around 3% of the global population.

The next main topic of the lecture was the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mr. Drozdiak warned that the issue induces the most tension in the NATO as there are vast differences in opinions in certain European countries; therefore the issue became very significant in EU-U.S. relations. In a couple of weeks, there will be a meeting held in The Hague with the foreign ministers of the NATO to discuss the “next big moves” in the region. One of the most pressing problems is the strengthening of the Afghanistan drug policy since 90% of raw materials (poppy seeds) for heroin come from the country. There are initiatives to try to transfer poppy seeds to laboratories for medical use. This might help the fight against the serious problem of heroin consumption. Another interesting point, according to Mr. Drozdiak, is a possible joint action with Iran in the matter which might serve as a spillover to other areas of cooperation.