Atlantic Council’s Fred Kempe on the Future of Transatlantic Relations

Fred Kempe, CEO & President of The Atlantic Council, joined EVP of Geopolitical Strategy & Risk Michelle Giuda to discuss the future of U.S.-European relations in 2021 and beyond.

• On Big Tech as an area of friction or cooperation: “I think we really do have to think of competition in new ways. We don’t want companies to be monopolistic, but on the other hand, we do want our most innovative companies to be able to operate in each other’s spaces – Europe and the United States – in the most innovative manner possible for the good of all democratic countries. And so I think this is going to be one of the first big tests of the Biden administration.”
• On the role of NATO: “I think where you’re going to see change – and you’re already seeing this from NATO now during the Trump Administration – is Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg talked about NATO going… in a more political direction and a more global direction… Political means, yes we’re still going to be a military organization, but we really have to also create political unity, and if you look at the bylaws of NATO it really calls for that.”
• On emerging political risks to business: “Hard to predict the risk that’s going forward. It could be deglobalization; it could be another pandemic; it could be political conflict of one side or another. I think the main thing you have to do is build resilience into the system so that you’re not trying to predict specific shocks, but you’re making your whole system resilient to whatever shocks may come along.”

Driven by the mission of “shaping the global future together,” the Atlantic Council is a nonpartisan organization that galvanizes US leadership and engagement in the world, in partnership with allies and partners, to shape solutions to global challenges.

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