The SAIS Center for Transatlantic Relations (2002-2018) engaged international scholars and students directly with government officials, journalists, business executives, and other opinion leaders from both sides of the Atlantic on issues facing Europe and North America. The goal of the Center, located near Dupont Circle in Washington, DC, was to strengthen and reorient transatlantic relations to the dynamics of the globalizing world. Center activities included seminars and lectures; media programs and web-based activities; research projects and policy study groups. The Center was an integral part of the Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). The Center had been recognized by the European Commission as an EU Center of Excellence in the United States. It served as the coordinating office of the American Consortium on EU Studies (ACES), to improve understanding of the European Union and US-EU relations throughout the Washington-Northern Virginia-Baltimore region. The Center helped to launch the Congressional Caucus on the European Union. The Center offered seminars, briefings and other support to the Caucus, and to the Congressional Staff Roundtable on the European Union. The Center also led the international policy work of the Johns Hopkins-led National Center for the Study of Preparedness and Catastrophic Event Response (PACER).