Global and regional events over the past three years have conspired to bring Europeans closer together. Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine since 2022 has led to European solidarity with its democratic neighbour, including allowing Ukraine to begin the road to European Union membership. Meanwhile, two European states, Sweden and Finland, finally dropped their neutrality and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The re-election of Donald Trump in 2024 has caused chaos in the financial markets and a possible trade war, again leading to strong European responses. The US President’s ambivalence about NATO has further provoked European reactions. Defence cooperation, including with the United Kingdom, is firmly on the agenda.

In this lecture Julie Smith (University of Cambridge) & Birgit Bujard (University of Cologne) argued that decisions in Washington and Moscow have acted as catalysts for closer cooperation among European countries, precisely the opposite of the disruption they sought to achieve.

Thank you, Julie, for making the trip to Cologne and giving us lots of food for thought on the UK, Germany and the future of European integration.

Thank you to Professor Wolfgang Wessels and the team at CETEUS, Professor Michael Bechtel, Professor Sven-Oliver Proksch and the team at the Department of Political Science, everyone at the University's Cologne International Forum and the Europa-Union Köln for the cooperation on this excellent lecture.