When America Votes: U.S. Elections and the World
Nov 18, 2026 | 10 – 11 am ET
Online Panel Discussion | Speakers: Elisa Chelle (Université Paris Nanterre, France), Ayako Hiramatsu (University of Tokyo), and Reynaldo Ortega (Centro de Estudios Internacionales (CEI), El Colegio de México); Moderator: Axel Jansen (GHI Washington)
Following the 2026 U.S. midterm elections, this panel places the international consequences and reverberations of American elections in historical perspective. Publics, media, and governments abroad have not only watched U.S. elections closely but have had to live with their outcomes, from trade and tariffs to security commitments, immigration policy, and expectations of American leadership. How have these elections been interpreted elsewhere, and how have they reshaped politics, alliances, and policy debates there? Do midterms register abroad at all, or only presidential contests? And how can we separate the influence of American politics from developments rooted in domestic or regional circumstances?
Three scholars will each offer a short historical introduction, drawing on moments such as the Democratic wins in the 2006 midterms, Barack Obama’s election in 2008, and Donald Trump’s election in 2016: Elisa Chelle (Université Paris Nanterre) on France, Ayako Hiramatsu (University of Tokyo) on Japan, and Reynaldo Ortega (El Colegio de México) on Mexico. Moderator Axel Jansen (GHI Washington) will then lead a conversation on how U.S. elections have shaped expectations of the United States as an ally, neighbor, and global power, followed by audience questions. What, if anything, do these earlier elections tell us about what the 2026 results may mean beyond U.S. borders?
Panelists:
- For France, Elisa Chelle (Université Paris Nanterre, France)
- For Japan, Ayako Hiramatsu (Political Science, Center for Pacific and American Studies, University of Tokyo)
- For Mexico, Reynaldo Ortega (Political Science, member of El Colegio’s Sociopolitical and Electoral Observatory)
- Moderator (from Germany): Axel Jansen (GHI Washington)
About the Speakers
Elisa Chelle is Professor of Political Science at Université Paris Nanterre, a junior member of the Institut universitaire de France (2022–2027), and an affiliated researcher at Sciences Po (LIEPP). She has held visiting positions at Columbia, Cornell, Georgetown, and CUNY. Her latest book is La démocratie à l'épreuve du populisme. Les leçons du trumpisme (Odile Jacob, 2025). She served as Editor-in-Chief of Politique américaine (2020–2026) and is now Associate Editor of French Politics.
Ayako Hiramatsu is associate professor of American politics at Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo. She holds a Ph.D in political science from Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, and has published articles on voting rights and political parties in the United States.
Reynaldo Yunuen Ortega Ortiz is Professor of Political Science at the Center for International Studies at El Colegio de Mexico since 1998. He was awarded the National Prize of Social Research and Public Opinion in 2012. His work is focused on Comparative Politics, Studies of Transitions to Democracy, particularly, the cases of Mexico and Spain, presidential elections, party identity, and US - Mexican relations. He is the author of: Presidential Elections in Mexico. From Hegemony to Pluralism, New York, Palgrave MacMillan, 2017; Movilización y democracia: España y México, El Colegio de México, 2008; and he was the editor with Salvador Martí i Puig, Fernanda Somuano and Claire Wright (eds.), Democracy in Mexico. Attitudes and perceptions of citizens at national and local level. London, Institute of Latin American Studies, 2014. He has also published several academic articles at:Democratization, International Journal, Foro Internacional, Norteamérica, Política y Gobierno and Revista Mexicana de Sociología. Between 2008 and 2017 he was Director of the academic journal Foro Internacional and he was the academic coordinator of the BA in International Relations at the Center for International Studies 2006-2008. He was visiting professor at the Department of Sociology at the Universidad de Oviedo (Spain); he has also been visiting researcher at The New School for Social Research, NY, The University of Chicago, la Universidad de Salamanca, Spain, and at the CERI, Sciences Po, Paris.
Axel Jansen is Deputy Director of the German Historical Institute Washington (GHI), which he joined in 2016. A historian of the United States in a transatlantic context, he is the author of a study of Americans who volunteered in Europe during World War I while the US was still neutral, and of the first analytical biography of Alexander Dallas Bache, the leader of mid-nineteenth century American science. His recent work examines public debates about science, including developmental biology since the Cold War, and debates about automation and work after World War II. He holds a doctorate and Habilitation from the University of Frankfurt, where he is a Privatdozent.