From 29 January – 3 February 2025, CSDS organised a working visit to the United States (US) to engage in discussions on transatlantic security, economic resilience and the role of technology in great power competition. The CSDS team consisted of CSDS Director, Luis Simón, CSDS Deputy Director, Giulia Tercovich, Head of the CSDS Geopolitics and Technology Programme, Antonio Calcara, CSDS Post-Doctoral Researcher, Lukas Spielberger, and Doctoral Researcher, Octavian Manea.
CSDS engaged with senior policymakers, as well as experts from the academic and think tank communities in the US, to assess the potential implications of the new Trump administration on US-China strategic competition and its ripple effects on Europe. These exchanges provided a valuable forum to discuss shifting transatlantic dynamics, economic security and geopolitical realignments in an era of great power rivalry.
In Washington, D.C., CSDS organised an exchange with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, which included a public conference on “Transatlantic Perspectives on U.S.-China Geoeconomic Competition”, as well as a closed door session. Additionally, the team engaged in two separate workshops with the Asia Society with the BMW Center for German and European Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service to discuss, respectively, transatlantic approaches to China and the future of the transatlantic relationship.
On Friday, the CSDS team were in Los Angeles to share their research during the “Europe, China, and America under Trump 2.0” Symposium organised by the University of Southern California (USC). This allowed CSDS to provide insights into the potential transatlantic and global implications of a second Trump administration. The visit concluded on Monday at UC Berkeley, where CSDS presented its latest research on Europe’s role in US-China competition, transatlantic technology cooperation and economic security.
The visit took place in the context of CSDS’ ongoing work on “Europe in US-China Rivalry” and “Geopolitics and Technology”. The visit was funded by the European Union through European Research Council grants on Sino-American Competition and European Strategic Autonomy (SINATRA), under grant number 101045227, and Competition in the Digital Era: Geopolitics and Technology in the 21st Century (CODE), under grant number 101116328.
