Dukakis Center hosts virtual panel of foreign policy experts

The Dukakis Center continued its series of webinars on the 2020 US general election with a bluechip panel on December 7 on US interests and diplomacy in the "three seas" -- the Black Sea, the Aegean, and the Easterm Mediterranean.

 

Dukakis Center Director David Wisner hosted three old friends -- John Koenig, Melinda Haring, and Alan Makovsky -- and one newcomer, Ioannis Grigoriadis, for a lively, informative, and occasionally contentious discussion on the policy prospects of this extended region as President-elect Biden begins to form his national security team.

 

The discussion focused initially on the complexities inherent in identifying and managing US interests from the northernmost shores of the Black Sea to the Mediterranean coast of North Africa. Global and regional great power rivalries loomed large, with Russia, Turkey, and even China all see as possible threats to American interests, while certain smaller countries invited sustained examination, from Libya in the Mediterranean to Ukraine in the Black Sea.

 

Despite the multiple challenges facing the incoming US administration in the region, cautious optimism was expressed by the panelists about President-elect Biden's capacity to formulate a coherent and successful foreign policy. John Koenig, who served as US Consul General of Thessaloniki during his storied career in the US Foreign Service, speculated that the Aegean was one potential zone of bilateral policy success, given productive relations between Greece and the US.

 

The Dukakis Center will host a final webinar on the election in mid-January 2021, prior to the inauguration of Joe Biden as the next US President.