Social Science Activities

USA and Europe

Scenarios for USA: Elections, Economy, and the Decline of its Global Power?

Before the presidential elections in the United States, on November 3rd, the Ramón Areces Foundation and the London School of Economics (LSE) organized a debate with two of the leading experts in International Relations from this British business school: Michael Cox, founding Director of LSE IDEAS; and Peter Trubowitz, Director of the US center at the LSE. The debate was moderated by Adam Austerfield from the LSE. Regarding the hegemonic role of the United States in the world, according to Trubowitz, “in many OECD countries the US brand has lost its value." He recalled that this is not the first time that this has happened, that the United States behaves in a way that is harmful to its own interests, recalling as an example what happened in the Vietnam or Iraq wars. On the development of the COVID-19 pandemic, Michael Cox explained that, in sporting terms, one can speak of a game of two-halves. The first was fatal, “but China, taking advantage of its semi-authoritarian reality, appears to the world showing that it has left the health and economic crisis behind. China has weathered the crisis better than the United States,” Cox said. 

Brexit and the Future of the European Union

The Ramón Areces Foundation and the London School of Economics (LSE) organized this online debate to analyze the ‘Brexit and the future of the European Union’. Speakers were Will Hutton, Director of Hertford College, Oxford, and Governor of the LSE, and Cecilia Malmström, former EU Trade Commissioner. The moderator of the meeting, Adam Austerfield, from the LSE, recalled how more than four years have passed since the referendum that put the United Kingdom on the path of leaving the EU. Will Hutton stressed that "even with a Brexit agreement with the EU, things are going to get very complicated in the coming years for the UK." Cecilia Malmström sent a message of hope about the current situation in the EU. “We could take advantage of this difficult time to boost multilateralism and work together to defend the trading system. We have to be at the forefront to achieve a greener economy, because the climate crisis is of a larger scale than the COVID-19 crisis and will last much longer. We have to think of the EU as a global player, stick together and come up with a stronger strategy”, Malmström said.