The
Center for Transatlantic Relations at
SAIS will unveil
the premier issue of its bimonthly magazine,
Transatlantic: Europe, America & the World, during a
launch celebration on Tuesday.
The event will feature remarks by a panel of speakers,
including Robert J. Guttman, editor in chief of
Transatlantic; Gerard Baker, chief U.S commentator
for The Financial Times at its Washington bureau;
Patrick Jarreau, Washington bureau chief for Le
Monde; Martin Walker, United Press International
editor; and Esther Brimmer, deputy director of the Center
for Transatlantic Relations.
The focus of the new publication will be to explore
and explain issues confronting the United States and Europe
in an increasingly globalized world. "Over the past decade
Europeans and Americans disinvested in transatlantic
issues, and we are paying the price," says Daniel Hamilton,
director of the Center for Transatlantic Relations.
"Transatlantic promises to be another of the
center's ongoing efforts to generate deeper understanding
of the issues confronting Europe and North America today."
In its inaugural issue, Transatlantic asks,
"Are We Still Friends?" Looking at the state of
transatlantic relations in the wake of the Iraq war, the
magazine indicates that the prevailing opinion that the
United States and its allies are in a state of deep despair
and anger with one another is not true and that relations
are getting better all the time even after the change of
government in Spain.
Lionel Barber, managing editor of The Financial Times
in the United States, who will be writing a column in every
issue of Transatlantic, analyzes how a John Kerry
foreign policy would differ from the current
administration's policies with regard to the country's
allies, the U.N. and Iraq.
Martin Walker, editor of UPI and formerly with The
Guardian in Brussels and Moscow, takes a tongue-in-cheek
look at why Europeans should actually like President George
W. Bush, saying among other reasons that he is more
European in his personality than may be readily
apparent.
John Andrews, a longtime correspondent for The
Economist in Paris, now reports from Los Angeles, where he
profiles the new administration of Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger and sees if Schwarzenegger's European roots
have any effect on his policies.
David Lennon, a longtime Middle East reporter for The
Financial Times now living in London, presents the support
that the United States is receiving from some of its allies
in Afghanistan and Iraq. Bruce Barnard, a correspondent for
The Journal of Commerce writing from Brussels, and now
living in Cambridge, United Kingdom, shows how U.S.
business actually grew between the United States and its
European allies during all the political acrimony over the
Iraq war.
Francis Fukuyama, Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of
International Political Economy at SAIS, presents another
angle on the headscarf issue in France.
Transatlantic also interviews the French ambassador
and the French minister for European affairs to find out
what the new law in France banning headscarves really means
for Muslims.
Supachai Panitchpakdi, director of the World Trade
Organization, and Pascal Lamy, European Trade commissioner,
present their views on world trade and the fate of the
trade talks this year in exclusive interviews for the
magazine.
Another article interviews Sir John Kerr, a former
British ambassador to the United States, who points out why
the recent attempt to give Europe a constitution failed and
looks ahead to what may happen and how the proposed
constitution compares with the U.S. constitution.
Transatlantic traces John and Teresa Kerry's
European connections, researches same-sex marriage in
Europe and how laws differ from those in the United States,
and speculates on who might be the new team of
commissioners at the European Commission in Brussels next
year. The magazine also features a "Cultural Comments"
section with reviews of current books and exhibits.
Guttman, Transatlantic's editor in chief, says,
"Our new magazine will become the premier magazine in its
field very quickly due to our well-known journalists on
both sides of the Atlantic and our interviews with leading
policy-makers around the world. In addition to looking at
what is really happening behind the major topics of the
day, Transatlantic presents a lighter view with
articles on culture, art, travel and books."
The magazine launch celebration will be held at 5:30
p.m. on March 30 in the Kenney Auditorium of the school's
Nitze Building, in Washington. Non-SAIS affiliates who want
to attend should call 202-663-5730 or write to
transatlanticRSVP@jhu.edu.
For information about subscribing to
Transatlantic, call 202-587-3235 or e-mail rguttman@jhu.edu. An
annual subscription (six issues) is $30; a two-year
subscription (12 issues) is $49.