Great Power Competition and the EU’s Role in the World

Name: Great Power Competition and the EU’s Role in the World
Start: 2021-06-03T09:00:00-0400
End: 2021-06-03T10:00:00-0400

RSVP Required Open to the Public

Please join the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship for a discussion with Daniela Schwarzer, Senior Fellow with the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship and Executive Director for Europe and Eurasia at the Open Society Foundations, on the European Union’s most recent attempts to become a more strategic actor on the global stage. From a European perspective, the Biden administration offers a great opportunity to rethink and relaunch the transatlantic relationship and to partner with the U.S. in strengthening multilateralism. However, the EU still punches below its weight in international affairs and defining its strategy towards China is its most important challenge in context.

This seminar will explore the most recent steps that the European Union has made to enhance its international role as well as the state of EU-China relations. As much depends on member state developments in the European Union, the seminar will also address the upcoming elections in Germany and France. Faculty Chair, Nicholas Burns will moderate this discussion.

Date: Thu, Jun 3, 2021 Time: 09:00am - 10:00am Location: Online

Daniela Schwarzer is the Open Society Foundations’ executive director for Europe and Eurasia. Schwarzer is a renowned expert in European affairs and international relations. Since 2016, she has served as director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations, where she has steered the organization’s strategic repositioning and modernization and has advised the EU Commission and national governments on European affairs. She is an honorary professor of political science at Freie Universität Berlin and a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center.

Prior to leading the German Council on Foreign Relations, Schwarzer was a member of the executive team of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, where she served as its senior director of research, as well as heading its Berlin office and Europe program from 2013 to 2016. Schwarzer also spent eight years at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, where she led the European integration department from 2008 to 2013.