The Current Shifts and Adjustments in US-EU Relations
Speaker: Dr. Uli Brückner, EU Jean Monnet Professor at Stanford in Berlin
Host: Dr. YAN Shaohua, Deputy Director, Center for China-Europe Relations, Fudan University
Discussant:
Prof. Song Lilei, Director, Center for European Studies, Tongji University
Prof. Wei Zongyou, Center for American Studies, Fudan University
Dr. Brückner studied Political Science, German Literature, and History at the University of Würzburg and the Freie Universität Berlin. Working at the FU Berlin since 1987, he has specialized in European Integration. From 1997 until 2003, he also worked as a Jean Monnet Visiting Professor at Szczecin University in Poland, and since1999, has taught as a Visiting Professor at Stanford University in Berlin and California, ECNU and Fudan University Shanghai. ln 2003 he became an EU Jean Monnet Professor at Stanford.
Abstract: This lecture will explore profound changes in transatlantic relations marked by US President Trump’s second term, widely seen as the most significant transformation of US EU relations since World War II. Political and strategic shifts under Trump 2.0 compels the European Union to mitigate risks by investing in strategic autonomy and seeking new partnerships. Despite tensions, economic ties and personal connections across the Atlantic will remain strong, and NATO is expected to continue. Yet Europe’s role in US foreign policy is likely to diminish, even as the US demands greater European financial and military contributions. These ongoing shifts will clearly transform the EU but this period does not represent the “end of the West”, rather the end of the West as we have known it.
Time: 14.00-15.30pm, November 13th, 2025
Venue: Room 324, Wenke Building, Fudan University
This talk is jointly organized by Center for China-Europe Relations, Fudan University & Center for European Studies, Tongji University
