Skip to content
Navigating a New Political Landscape: View real-time updates about the impact of and Northeastern’s response to recent political changes.
Apply
Stories

Despite lifting of travel ban, tensions toward U.S. linger among European allies

People in this story

Photo credit: Kirsty O'Connor/PA Wire URN:61860627 (Press Association via AP Images)
File photo dated 18/01/21 of a passenger pushing luggage through the Arrival Hall of Terminal 5 at London's Heathrow Airport.

Many vaccinated Europeans breathed a collective sigh of relief when the United States lifted an 18-month travel ban this week. The reciprocative gesture was a victory for diplomacy, and may have eased tensions, but the transatlantic relationship remains politically strained, according to Northeastern faculty experts in international relations.

The pandemic-related restrictions irked Britain and European Union nations, with some of their citizens taking to social media to air their frustrations. “Please follow science,” one person wrote on stopthetravelban.com. “(W)hy can Americans come to Europe and fly back and me, vaccinated, can’t enter?”

The ban will end in November, President Joe Biden said ahead of this week’s UN General Assembly meeting in New York. Still, there remains an air of unpredictability about America among the UK and EU, says Fiona Creed, an associate teaching professor at Northeastern who previously worked with the EU delegation to the UN. “There was a sense in the EU countries that with Biden coming into power that there was going to be a change in relations” from the Trump administration, says Creed. Eight months into Biden’s term, “there’s a sense of mistrust with what the U.S. has done and has continued to do under Joe Biden, just simply because the EU in general hasn’t seen change.”

Biden’s foreign policy at this stage of his presidency is “still pretty undefined,” explains Julie Garey, an assistant teaching professor of political science who specializes in international relations and U.S. foreign policy.

Continue reading at News@Northeastern.

More Stories

Northeastern professor Brandon Welsh’s book Between Medicine and Criminology explores the history of the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study. Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University

New book from Northeastern professor looks at history of groundbreaking criminology study

05.12.2025
New Pope Leo XIV is introduced from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City on May 8, 2025. (Sipa via AP Images)

As an American, what kind of influence can Pope Leo XIV wield in the Catholic Church?

05.08.2025
Caution tape

Is a serial killer stalking New England? Northeastern experts say the evidence doesn’t add up

05.13.25
All Stories