Europe and the Crisis in Transatlantic Relations
The Trump administration’s kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and threats to seize Greenland have produced profound disquiet in Europe and even fears that the survival of NATO could be at risk. While there have been strong European statements in support of Danish and Greenland sovereignty, it is very doubtful how far Europe would go in resisting Trump. On Venezuela, most European leaders have been either silent or equivocal.
To discuss the impact of these U.S. moves and possible European responses, QI held a conversation featuring Pascal Boniface, founding director of the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs – IRIS, based in Paris, Zoltán Koskovics, director of the Geopolitical Unit at the Center for Fundamental Rights in Budapest, Hungary, and Zachary Paikin, research fellow in the Grand Strategy program at the Quincy Institute. Anatol Lieven, director of the Eurasia Program at QI, moderated.
Program
Entities
Panelists
Pascal Boniface
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.
Zoltán Koskovics
Zoltán Koskovics directs the Geopolitical Unit at the Center for Fundamental Rights in Budapest, Hungary. His area of study covers the geopolitical crisis of the 21st century, the war in Ukraine, US and Russian foreign and domestic policy, great power competition, conflicts, weapons of mass destruction proliferation, and arms control. His essays have appeared in Newsweek and several Hungarian publications, and he is a regular guest on Hungarian TV and Radio news shows. He is a regular speaker at CPAC Hungary, the largest overseas Conservative Political Action Conference.
Zachary Paikin
Zachary Paikin is deputy director of the Better Order Project and research fellow in the Grand Strategy Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He is also senior fellow at the Institute for Peace & Diplomacy (IPD), a Canadian international affairs think tank. Previously, Dr. Paikin was researcher in EU Foreign Policy at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels from 2021 to 2023 and senior researcher in the International Security Dialogue Department at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) from 2023 to 2024.
Anatol Lieven
Anatol Lieven is director of the Eurasia Program and the Andrew Bacevich chair in American Diplomatic History 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. He also served as a member of the advisory committee of the South Asia Department of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and of the academic board of the Valdai discussion club in Russia. He holds a B.A. and Ph.D. in history and political science from Cambridge University in England.