As a boy growing up in Paris, Patrick Chamorel was fascinated by the United States "for reasons that still remain somewhat mysterious," he says. Today, as a distinguished expert on trans-Atlantic relations, the workings of U.S. business and politics are no longer a mystery to him.

Professor Chamorel joins CMC this semester as a Visiting Crown Fellow, a program established to bring to the faculty professors with an international perspective. An independent policy consultant to French corporations and former advisor to the French prime minister, Chamorel's unassuming air might seem more Californian than Parisian.

"One of the things I was fascinated with very early on was the American West --- the Rugged West," Chamorel recalled. "When the time came to work on my doctoral dissertation, I chose a topic that related to the United States." He traveled to the Bay Area to do his research at Stanford and Berkeley, writing an award-winning dissertation on the San Francisco electoral system.

After visiting America many times over the years and working in the U.S. Congress as an American Political Science Association Fellow, Chamorel returned to the United States seven years ago and worked in Washington, D.C., as a scholar and consultant on U.S. and European economic, trade, and investment policies. He brings to CMC a honed perspective as both a political scholar and a consultant to private business.

"Government understands business much better here, because the people who are running government often come from the business world and often share the same values. The relationship can be conflictual however," Chamorel explains. "In Europe, the relationship is much cozier because it's the opposite. The people who run the largest businesses often come from government."

Chamorel emphasizes the importance of understanding the differences between the United States and Europe, a notion he incorporates into his teaching curriculum. His CMC students are studying, among other things, globalization and the different ways in which the United States and Europe respond to issues. "The image of Europe in the United States is still very fuzzy," he says. "The European Union is mysterious to many American decision-makers. It comes across as a big bureaucracy that's very opaque." According to Chamorel, the responsibility of creating awareness and understanding across the Atlantic falls on Americans and Europeans alike. "The European Union should be more aware of the way that Americans look at it, and Americans should remain supportive of the European Union," he explains.

Patrick Chamorel, an expert on U.S. and European economic, trade, and investment policies.