On November 8, Americans will elect members of the US House of Representatives and Senate, alongside many state and local government elections. At stake as well is the broader normalization of Euro-Atlantic relations under the Biden Administration.
The recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the signing of the Executive Order on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework both exemplify the thornier, longstanding trade and regulatory tensions between the EU and the US. While the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) has been lauded for providing a key channel of communication between Euro-Atlantic partners, its future remains uncertain as concrete outcomes remain to be seen. Further, the Biden administration’s increasingly forceful response towards Beijing may drive a wedge between the US and its European allies as the EU resists fully mirroring the US position on China. And while security cooperation in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine was thought to be uncontested, growing domestic pressures from both sides of the aisle may soon lead to weakened Congressional support.
Against this complex backdrop, this briefing will explore how the US midterms will affect Euro-Atlantic cooperation in the realms of security, trade and technology, and discuss the road ahead as the electoral balance shifts in the US.
