A Sea Change? The Impact of the US Presidential Election on Central and South-Eastern European Security and Defence

This LSE IDEAS report assesses the likely impact of the new Biden administration on security and defence in the Black Sea, Balkan and Central European regions.

The report finds grounds for optimism but also for managing expectations. President Biden's support for multilateral security approaches is likely to strengthen NATO and regional cooperation, particularly on Russia, but the region cannot expect to be the US' top priority. A return to values-based diplomacy under Biden, too, may put pressure on democratically-backsliding allies to whom his predecessor turned a blind eye.

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A Sea Change? The Impact of the US Presidential Election on Central and South-Eastern European Security and Defence

This report was published on 17 March 2021.

Corina Rebegea is a Washington-based expert on democratic governance and foreign policy. She was previously the Director of the Democratic Resilience program at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). Contact via LSE IDEAS, ideas@lse.ac.uk

Wojciech Michnik is an Assistant Professor of International Relations and Security Studies at Jagiellonian University and contributing editor for New Eastern Europe. wojciech.michnik@uj.edu.pl

Ivan Vejvoda is Permanent Fellow and Head of Europe’s Futures Project, Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna.
vejvoda@iwm.at

The authors would like to express their gratitude to LSE IDEAS, Christopher Coker and Megan Palmer for providing a platform to discuss their views and publishing this report.