Past Event

The Importance of Alliances: Now More than Ever

Thu. April 03, 2025 12:00 pm - 2:30 pm !Thompson Hine Offices New York, NY 10017

European countries and the EU are critical partners to many alliances worldwide and so are the United States, some of those relationships were challenged under the first Trump presidency.

Alliances and partnerships are important not only between nations but also between businesses; good alliances are built over time and will outlast the people that forged them. Alliances are based on the best intentions but in order to last they require time, trust, and honesty between friends - both in politics and in business.

Alliances don’t have an on and off switch, they are not a transactional tool to reach a single/specific goal. Alliance and partnerships are about more than their partners (allies) involved in them, they are a statement about a responsibility that is larger than the alliance itself.

Both in business as well as in policy decisions we depend on collaboration and reliable partners to create life-saving medical treatments; to accomplish the ambitious goals we need to achieve in order to properly address today’s issues. We need to get the best people around the table to collaborate to help not only their own bottom line but to save lives beyond their doorstep.

The same holds true in political alliances, the security agreement that NATO offers has effects beyond its members.

Trade agreements allow nations to ease trade barriers and build better, more solid economies to lift up their own and others. Trade agreements help create level playing fields and set standards that give its partners a competitive edge not only in manufacturing of products but to innovate.  Alliances are about more than ‘us’ they are about ‘us all’.

 

Our panel will discuss:
• How a second Trump presidency and a questioning of major alliance such as NATO might have ripple effects into other geopolitical relationships?
• How the question of 75+ year old alliances may impact other alliances and relationships that uphold the post-WWII liberal world order?
• Are we seeing a trend? Will trade pacts erode, industrial coalitions falter?
• Will a new transactional approach pave the way for new opportunities and/or create destabilizing schisms?
• How much are we integrating considerations about the greater good into our own prosperity and why doing so has never been more important?

 

Our audience will walk away inspired, with a new sense of responsibility and uplift to look for new partnerships. They can become less cynical about collaboration and all the reasons why a partnership presented to them may or may not be worthwhile pursuing.

 

 

This event is organized in collaboration with Network 20/20, an inclusive international community that bridges the gap between the private sector and foreign policy worlds.