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The Squeezed Middle: Europe between Russia and the USA
September 19 | 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
€10
This talk examines Europe’s increasingly challenging geopolitical position in an era defined by renewed great power competition and democratic backsliding. Europe now faces mounting pressures from multiple directions: an aggressive Russia under Vladimir Putin and an unpredictable USA governed by Donald Trump. These pressures unfold against a broader global trend: the relative decline of liberal democratic norms and the resurgence of authoritarian models of governance. This changing environment exposes structural weaknesses within Europe, including fragmented foreign policy decision-making, dependence on external security providers, and internal political divisions. Ultimately, asking whether Europe can act as an independent pole in an emerging multipolar order or whether it will remain caught between more powerful and more assertive global actors.
Donnacha Ó Beacháin is Professor of Politics at Dublin City University. His work combines a distinguished publication record with wide-ranging media engagement. He has conducted field research in all fifteen post-Soviet states and across the region’s protracted conflict zones, informed by more than a decade of living and working in the former USSR.