Workshop co-organised with Elettra Bargellini and Flavia Canestrini, and supported by a Multidisciplinary Workshop Grant of the EUI Max Weber Programme

The rules-based, multilateral order that has allowed Europe to thrive is in crisis. Since taking office, President Trump has intensified his America First agenda, embracing unilateralism, transactionalism, and, in some cases, open hostility towards its European partners at a time of open Russian aggression, and an ongoing power shift from the West to the Global South and China in particular. These dynamics challenge the rules-based, multilateral order and threaten Europe’s model of prosperity, which rests on transatlantic cooperation, free trade, and multilateral institutions. In both the public and scholarly debate, bleak scenarios and growing scepticism about Europe’s capacity to respond effectively dominate. This workshop moves beyond this pessimism.

The workshop starts from the insight that geopolitical rivalry, economic protectionism, and contested multilateralism are not unprecedented. To develop a clearer understanding of the multidimensional challenges facing Europe today, and to learn how to cope with them and develop a positive vision of Europe’s role in the future, scholars and policymakers alike will thus benefit from drawing lessons from the past.

To broaden our perspective on the current crisis, the workshop brings together participants from different disciplines – from history to law to economics to political science – to discuss the long-term transformations of the international order and its underlying normative frameworks, identify historical precedents, and thereby contextualise today’s challenges. This will also help us to generate ideas about how Europe can redefine its role in a turbulent future.

Links:

• Website: https://www.eui.eu/events?id=586415

• Programme: https://apps.eui.eu/EUI_API/EVENTSV2/Attachments/Index?id=34481