---

There are a number of cross-cutting challenges for the United States and Europe — immigration and integration, democracy promotion, and international trade among them — that touch upon local, national, and international policy arenas. The London bombings in July, the fall riots in France, and the more recent tension around the Danish cartoons show how integration affects broader issues like the economy and homeland security. Natural disasters, such as flooding in Central and Eastern Europe, Hurricane Katrina, and the energy crisis with Russia, raise new questions about energy costs and security, and also renews the debate on environment and climate change. In addition, President Bush has made democracy promotion a foreign policy priority, which, according to a recent GMF poll, has support among both Europeans and Americans (albeit with differences over the use of force). Finally, public scrutiny of international trade policy has intensified. All eyes are looking to see what the United States and the European Union will do to ensure that the WTO’s Doha round promotes economic development and how this will affect small farming communities at home.

As the transatlantic community grapples with these local and global challenges and searches for ways to address them together, GMF will convene the sixth annual Marshall Forum on Transatlantic Affairs March 16–19 on the shores of Lake Como in Tremezzo, Italy. One of GMF’s signature events, the three-day Marshall Forum brings together political, business, media, and community leaders from the United States and 20 European countries to discuss the transatlantic relationship in a global context. GMF established the gathering in 2001 as a venue for alumni of the Marshall Memorial Fellowship and other fellowship programs to exchange ideas in an atmosphere of informal conversation and formal debate.