Author: Francesco Grillo, Academic Fellow, Department of Social and Political Sciences, Bocconi University

European leaders must agree on how to respond to the accusation that their continent faces “civilizational erasure”. These were the strongest words used in the most strongly-worded national security strategy ever released by a US government, making it clear that allyship is no longer a given. And yet, what exactly does “civilizational erasure” mean? The […]

“The European green deal is something we owe to our children because we do not own this planet.” These words date back to a few days before Christmas 2019. They defined Ursula Von Der Leyen’s first presidency of the European Commission but belong to what now seems like a different era. Now, six years later, […]

Back in November 2023 – a time when it wasn’t even clear that Donald Trump would be allowed to run in the upcoming presidential primaries – the European Union approved a tough new “anti-coercion instrument”. This stated: “Economic coercion exists where a non-EU country applies or threatens to apply a measure affecting trade or investment […]

How much would it really cost the European Union to defend itself against aggression? In the immediate term, that question, of course makes us think of Russia, but we can no longer exclude multiple other possibilities, including the potential need to defend territory – say, Greenland – from a former ally. How much would it […]