Abstract:

In June 2012, the Talloires Conference of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. We trace the concept’s birth to a gathering on Cape Cod in 1985 when a number of interested scholars concluded that a regular exchange of views on US-European relations was crucial to the understanding of the evolution of global politics. As a result of that meeting, the Center for International Affairs convened a conference in Talloires for the first time in 1987. Since then the conference has been a key venue for the discussion of important topics of international affairs and the US-European relationship. This twenty-fifth gathering aimed to take stock of this relationship: What crucial changes have occurred since our first meeting? Where do we stand today? Where do we appear to be headed as we look twenty-five years into the future? What conclusions should we draw for the internal imperatives of this relationship and its role in the evolving politics of the globe?