Is Europe a Player or Playground in the Global Power Game?

Is Europe a player or a playground in the global power game? How does Europe navigate the intensifying rivalry between the United States and China? Can it assert its own strategic autonomy, or is it destined to remain a battleground for external powers? These are the pressing questions at the heart of Professor Luis Simón’s award-winning European Research Council project. Join us for an exclusive inaugural lecture where Professor Simón will unveil his groundbreaking theory on Europe’s role in the turbulent geopolitics of our time. Are you ready to challenge your perspective?

During this lecture, Professor Simón will present the innovative theory behind his research, which investigates how external powers like the United States and China seek to influence certain European policy choices and how coalitions of European actors or binders push back against such external pressures and try to “bind” Europe together. Ultimately, the theory is geared towards explaining whether and under which circumstances intra-European binding efforts are likely to prevail in the face of external pressures.

Professor Simón argues that Europe is both a player and a playground in Sino-American competition, and seeks to explain under which circumstances one condition (player or playground) is more prevalent than the other.

The project zooms in on the interaction between external “wedging” and internal “binding” in the context of three broad policy areas:

• trade and investment
• technology and infrastructure
• foreign and security policy.

By combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, this project sheds light on Europe’s strategic position in an increasingly turbulent geopolitical landscape.

Professor Simón will be joined by his project team, including Prof. Daniel Fiott and Prof. Giulia Tercovich, who coordinate the economic statecraft and foreign policy legs of the project respectively.

Join us for this thought-provoking lecture, followed by a Q&A session and a celebratory reception.

The lecture will be held in English.

Register here