Coming up: Europe and the Trump Administration

The new Trump administration poses a fundamental challenge to the European Union, or at least to the political parties that have dominated it for the past three quarters of a century. President Trump has promised to do a deal to end the Ukraine War over the heads of the Europeans; he has threatened increased tariffs against European goods; he has suggested intensified rivalry with China; and he (and still more his ally Elon Musk) are openly aligned with anti-establishment and Euroskeptic right-wing forces in Europe.

To discuss these issues and European responses to the Trump administration, join a conversation featuring Sir Tony Brenton, former British ambassador to Moscow, Pascal Boniface, founding director of the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs (IRIS), Alexandra Dienes, senior researcher at the Regional Office for Cooperation and Peace in Europe, and Rüdiger Lüdeking, former German diplomat. Anatol Lieven, director of the Eurasia program at the Quincy Institute, will moderate.

The conversation will take place on Tuesday, February 4th 6pm.

Register here

Panelists

Tony Brenton

Sir Tony Brenton served as British ambassador to Moscow from 2004-2008. He previously served in Cairo and Brussels, and as Charge d’Affaires in Washington. He set up and led the Foreign Office unit that negotiated the Rio “Earth Summit” in 1992 and the first global agreement on climate change. He is author of "The Greening of Machiavelli: The History of International Environmental Politics" and "Historically Inevitable?: Turning Points of the Russian Revolution" (2016).

Pascal Boniface

Dr. Pascal Boniface is the founding director of the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs – IRIS, based in Paris. He is the Director of the quarterly journal “La Revue internationale et stratégique” (International and strategic review) since 1991, and the Editor of “L’Année stratégique” (Strategic Yearbook) since 1985. Dr. Boniface has published or edited more than sixty books dealing with International Relations, Nuclear Deterrence and Disarmament, European Security, French International Policy, Sport in the International Relations (he developed the concept of Geopolitics of Sport) and also the conflict in the Middle-East and its impact in France. Many of them have become classics, reissued on a regular basis and translated in several languages.

Rüdiger Lüdeking

Rüdiger Lüdeking is a former German diplomat. He joined the Federal Foreign Office in 1980. In many of his assignments his focus was on multilateral affairs, East-West relations, European security and disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation issues. Ambassador Lüdeking served as Permanent Representative to the United Nations and to the other International Organizations in Vienna (2008-12) and as Permanent Representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (2012-15). His last position was Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium.

Alexandra Dienes

Dr. Alexandra Dienes is senior researcher at the Regional Office for Cooperation and Peace in Europe, a Vienna-based branch of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. She was born in Moscow and did her MA in Political Science at the Freie University Berlin (2012) and her PhD at the University of Amsterdam (2017). She specialises in foreign policy and political economy of Russia and the post-Soviet space. At FES ROCPE, Alexandra focuses on European security and the role of the OSCE in regional cooperation, leads the survey ‘Security Radar’ and coordinates the expert network FLEET.. Previously, she worked for German political foundations in Georgia and China as well as the European Parliament in Brussels. Since 2023 Alexandra heads the Austria branch of Women in International Security (WIIS).

Anatol Lieven

Dr. Anatol Lieven is the director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He was formerly a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar and in the War Studies Department of King’s College London. From 1985 to 1998, Lieven worked as a journalist in South Asia, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and covered the wars in Afghanistan, Chechnya and the southern Caucasus. Lieven is the author of several books, including "Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power?" and "Ukraine and Russia: A Fraternal Rivalry."

 Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft