Across the Pond Episode 2

Europe's Global Dilemma: Strategic Autonomy or Isolation? Oct 22, 2026 Spotify

In this second episode of Across the Pond, presenters Verena Kahl and Dan Krause  welcome FOTAR fellows Amanda Pridmore and Nathalie Frisch to explore Europe's place in a changing, increasingly post-Western world.
Together, they look past polite diplomacy to talk about:

  • The shift in the global balance of power,
  • A fundamental change in the role of the US,
  • Europe’s narrative credibility, and
  • Its complex relations with the Global South.
     

Key Topics in this Episode:
 

  • The "Say-Do Gap": Why the EU’s values-based rhetoric on trade, migration, and health policy frequently cracks when faced with operational reality—and how this damages its credibility abroad.
  • Predatory Climate Financing: How the current international financial architecture traps heavily impacted nations in the Global South in debt cycles through loans instead of equitable grants.
  • Introducing "Narrative Realism": Why European policy stories can only survive contact with reality if leaders are willing to openly name losses, colonial legacies, and conflicting interests.
  • Autonomy through Partnership: Why strategic autonomy shouldn't tip over into isolation, and why the Global South can never be treated as a monolith.
  • The Transatlantic Treasures: A moving, personal look at what passports and a historic letter from a grandmother reveal about moving between borders and shifting global identities.
  • What would genuine partnerships beyond the traditional West look like, how would this affect transatlantic relations – and whose voices must finally be heard?

Meet the Guests & Hosts
 

  • Amanda Pridmore is a project manager at the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin, where her work sits at the intersection of global order, transatlantic relations, and political communication. She leads strategic communications for ENSURED, a Horizon Europe-funded consortium on European global governance.
  • Nathalie Frisch is currently pursuing an LL.M. at the University of Southern California (USC). As a FOTAR Fellow at the BKHS and the Europa-Kolleg Hamburg, her research focuses on international investment law, obligations of conduct, and innovative funding mechanisms for climate finance.
  • Dan Krause is the Program Director for Europe and International Politics at the Bundeskanzler-Helmut-Schmidt-Stiftung (BKHS) in Hamburg.
  • Verena Kahl is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hamburg specializing in international law, human rights, and climate justice.

Resources & Shownotes