With the support of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the US and the Americas and the Europe programmes at Chatham House worked together on a project examining the currents buffeting politics on both sides of the Atlantic and consider appropriate responses. Under the banner of ‘the backlash against globalization’, the ambition of the project is to explore the challenges to open societies and open economies from different parts of the political spectrum in a comparative transatlantic context. In November 2017 the two programmes held the first activity as part of this initiative.