Inspired and mobilized by the Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations, the Transatlantic and European Dialogue on China commenced in early 2022, with the generous support of the Ford Foundation. At the start, this Dialogue convened a group of twenty leading next generation China scholars and experts from across Europe to develop actionable recommendations especially for European policymakers on how to manage relations with China, across a similar set of issue areas as covered by the Penn Project: Security & Conflict; Managing Economic Risks; Technology Competition; Law & Human Rights; and Global Governance & Development.
Over the past three years, the Transatlantic and European Dialogue’s in-person workshops have been hosted by three European institutions: LUISS Guido Carli in Rome (June 2022), the Leiden Asia Centre in the Netherlands (September 2022), and the Center for International Studies (CERI) at Sciences Po in Paris (April 2024). A write-up of the first two meetings was published (in Italian) here https://www.china-files.com/oltre-le-ideologie-accademici-usa-e-ue-sul-rapporto-con-la-cina/.
In part, the product of these workshops will be a collective volume, now in production, Beyond Systemic Rivalries: Transatlantic and European Policy Perspectives on China. Dialogue participants also have contributed to two ChinaFile Conversations, one published in April 2022, “Europe’s China Policy Has Taken a Sharp Turn. Where Will It Go Next?”, the second published in April 2023, “As Macron Arrives in Beijing, What’s Next for Europe and China?” (republished in Foreign Policy magazine as “Is Anyone in Beijing Listening to Europe?”). In addition, the Transatlantic and European Dialogue has generated multiple public events throughout Europe, as well as closed-door government briefings (including for Italian, Dutch, French, and British officials).
More broadly, the overall network of this Dialogue has developed into a community of now over fifty next generation experts from throughout Europe (and the U.K.), brought together in ongoing conversation over how to draw policy relevance out of academic insight on China. Similar to the Penn Project, the Transatlantic and European Dialogue has three primary goals: (i) to elevate fresh perspectives on policy towards China, from rising scholars and experts, before formal policymakers, other policy-relevant actors, and the wider public; (ii) to further develop the talent pool of next generation China scholars and experts capable of effectively translating their specialized knowledge into actionable policy recommendations; (iii) to build community among next generation China scholars and experts from countries that face similar policy challenges brought on by China’s rise.
Since its inception, the Transatlantic and European Dialogue on China has been co-directed by Neysun Mahboubi, the Director of the Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, and Rogier Creemers, Lecturer in Modern Chinese Studies at Leiden University.