Donald Trump’s return to the White House accelerates an historic shift in the nature of transatlantic relations since 1945, with an urgent need for Europe to provide much more effectively for its own security and defence in a disrupted and dangerous world. A major international academic and a leading EU policy practitioner will discuss what needs to be done.
Richard Rose will present his new book, European Security: From Ukraine to Washington (Bloomsbury, 2025), in which he explores the history of the United States’ commitment to defend Europe over the last 80 years, how European capitals can keep America engaged in that process, what conclusions to draw from the Ukraine war, what NATO and the EU now need to do, and where Britain features in this complex picture.
Klaus Welle will talk about his work on European defence for the EPP’s Brussels-based think tank, the Martens Centre, where they have been developing an agenda for building ‘soft power’ and ‘hard power’ complementarity between the EU and NATO, for joint military purchasing and a European DARPA, and for a European Security Council, including Britain. As Welle puts it, after Trump's re-election, ‘once may be an accident, but twice is the new normal’.
Meet our speakers and chair
Richard Rose is a political scientist, author, and academic. He is a professor and Director of the Centre for the Study of Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde (UOS) in Scotland, and is a visiting fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute and the WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
Klaus Welle is Visiting Professor in Practice at the LSE European Institute. He was previously Secretary General of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2022. His previous roles in Brussels include serving as chief of staff to the President of the European Parliament, as Director General for EU Internal Policies in the Parliament's administration, and as Secretary General successively of the European People's Party (EPP) transnational political party and of the EPP political group in the European Parliament.
Denisa Kostovicova is Professor of Global Politics at the LSE European Institute. She is a scholar of conflict and peace processes, and the author of Reconciliation by Stealth: How People Talk about War Crimes and Kosovo: The Politics of Identity and Space. Professor Kostovicova currently directs a major research programme funded by the European Research Council, Justice Interactions and Peace-building (JUSTINT). Her academic research has informed policy making at the EU, UN, and in the UK.
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