Sea Change? The Impact of the US Presidential Election on Central and South-Eastern European Security and Defence Corina rebegea, WojCieCh MiChnik, ivan vejvoda Rebegea, Michnik, Vejvoda 3 The Authors Corina Rebegea is a Washington-based expert on democratic governance and foreign policy. She was previously the Director of the Democratic Resilience program at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). Contact via LSE IDEAS,
[email protected] Wojciech Michnik is an Assistant Professor of International Relations and Security Studies at Jagiellonian University and contributing editor for New Eastern Europe.
[email protected] Ivan Vejvoda is Permanent Fellow and Head of Europe’s Futures Project, Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna.
[email protected] The authors would like to express their gratitude to LSE IDEAS, Christopher Coker and Megan Palmer for providing a platform to discuss their views and publishing this report. Rebegea, Michnik, Vejvoda 3 Sea Change? The Impact of the US Presidential Election on Central and South-Eastern European Security and Defence INTRODUCTION he election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris certainly brings Ta sea-change after four years of the US administration under the 45th President Donald Trump. This is true for US domestic politics as well as for American international engagement. The Biden The focus of the new administration, clearly stated even during administration the presidential campaign, will be to try and overcome the polarisation of US society, robustly confront the challenge of has expressed the COVID-19 pandemic which has claimed 400,000 lives by the a willingness to last day of the outgoing administration, as well as confronting the racial crisis, and the devastating economic effects on the rebuild America’s country.1 An important shift, Joe Biden’s foreign policy will be image as an grounded in domestic policy.