Westmont Magazine Exploring U.S.-E.U. Ties

Susan Penksa, professor of political science, spoke at “Building a Strategic U.S.-EU Partnership on Defense and Security Aspects,” a workshop hosted by the British Embassy, Washington, D.C., Oct. 21. Penksa, a Fulbright Scholar to Bosnia Herzegovina in 2007, addressed about 60 U.S. and European policy makers and experts about improving U.S.-EU cooperation in global conflict resolution and crisis stabilization. The Atlantic Council organized the workshop as part of the Project on Forging a Strategic U.S.-EU Partnership.

“The aim of this project is to develop policy recommendations to create a more strategic U.S.-EU relationship in the face of 21st century challenges,” Penksa says. “We also discussed non-proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, arms control, defense markets, security challenges in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Middle East and Africa, and the future of U.S. and EU relations with NATO and the United Nations.”

Workshop organizers will release a project report in Washington, D.C., in advance of the 2010 U.S.-EU Summit, which will include recommendations on security and defense, energy, the environment and economics.

Penksa has spoken at two previous conferences hosted by the Presidency of the EU and at the European Parliament in 2008. She has provided policy advice for the U.S. Mission to the EU in Brussels and done consulting work for USAID in Pakistan. She has more than 15 years of applied research and consulting experience in global security. Her areas of expertise include transatlantic security and defense, EU external policy, civil-military relations, conflict prevention, post-conflict stabilization, organized crime and terrorism, and security system reform.