On Tuesday, November 24, 2020, the head of the Bank of England warned that the failure to secure a trade deal with the European Union would do more damage to the U.K. economy over the long run than the coronavirus pandemic. Time is running out for negotiators as they enter the final stretch to reach a deal. But, what does Brexit – with or without a deal - mean for Europe and for the transatlantic alliance
1014 and the ACG hosted a discussion with Young Leader alumna Heather Conley, Senior Vice President for Europe, Eurasia, and the Arctic and Director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger, Foreign Editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and David Smith, the Guardian’s Washington DC Bureau Chief.
Heather A. Conley (2007 ACG Young Leader) is Senior Vice President for Europe, Eurasia, and the Arctic and Director of the Europe Program at CSIS. Prior to joining CSIS as a senior fellow and director for Europe in 2009, Conley served four years as executive director of the Office of the Chairman of the Board at the American National Red Cross. From 2001 to 2005, she was deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs with responsibilities for U.S. bilateral relations with the countries of Northern and Central Europe. From 1994 to 2001, she was a senior associate with an international consulting firm led by former U.S. deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage. Ms. Conley began her career in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. She was selected to serve as special assistant to the coordinator of U.S. assistance to the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union, and she has received two State Department Meritorious Honor Awards. Ms. Conley is frequently featured as a foreign policy analyst and Europe expert on CNN, MSNBC, BBC, NPR, and PBS, among other prominent media outlets. She received her B.A. in international studies from West Virginia Wesleyan College and her M.A. in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger (1985 ACG Legislative Aide Fellow) is Foreign Editor at the FAZ, where he writes about international politics. Before joining the newspaper’s editorial staff in 1986, Mr. Frankenberger gained deep insight into the U.S. political decision-making process when he worked as an assistant to a U.S. member of Congress. He was a Bosch Fellow at the Transatlantic Academy in Washington, DC, in 2011 and a Marshall Fellow at Harvard University in 1990. He serves on the Board of various institutions dealing with foreign and defense policy issues. Mr. Frankenberger holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science, Economics, and American Studies from Frankfurt University.
David Smith is the Washington Bureau Chief of The Guardian. From 2010 to 2015, he was the Africa correspondent for The Guardian for which he was based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was educated at the University of Leeds and was the editor of the student newspaper before joining the Daily Express as a graduate trainee in 1997. He moved to The Observer in 2003 and reported from countries including Afghanistan and Iraq. He appears as a commentator on NPR, the BBC, CNN, Sky News and other media outlets.