Professional Affiliation

Richard M Krasno Distinguished Professor in History & International Affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Expert Bio

Prof. Klaus W. Larres, Ph.D., is the Richard M. Krasno Distinguished Professor of History and International Affairs at the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Chapel Hill, NC. At UNC he also directs the Krasno Global Affairs & Business Council/Krasno Global Events Series, a public events series with prominent speakers. Previously he held the Henry Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy & International Relations at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, was selected as a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, NJ, and was a Visiting Fellow at Germany’s leading think tank the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin. He also worked as a Counselor and Senior Policy Adviser at the German Embassy in Beijing, China, and was a Visiting Scholar at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies of Harvard University.

For more of his work, visit: www.klauslarres.org 

Expertise

• Europe-US-China
• Global Strategic Competition
• Cold War
• Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding
• Economics and Globalization
• Global Governance
• Governance
• History
• Security and Defense
• U.S. Politics

Wilson Center Project

China as a Cause of Transatlantic Tension since the 1980s

Project Summary

The aim of this research project is to compare and analyze the different approaches the US and the EU (and in particular Germany) have taken in their relations with China since the 1980s. I explore why at times this has led to intense transatlantic disagreements and whether or not different perceptions of the value of economic, political and security relations with China as well as historical experiences have shaped the transatlantic allies’ divergent views of and strategies toward China. Neither the European nor the much firmer American strategy of how to deal with China has been successful, however. The ’benign’ European and German approach has been exploited by China – Beijing, for instance, has not stopped plagiarizing and stealing European technological knowhow - while the ’tough’ US policy during the Obama and in particular during the Trump and Biden administrations has resulted in trade wars and contributed to growing political and dangerous military tension with China. The question of how western democracies can simultaneously co-exist and cooperate while fiercely competing and grappling with authoritarian challengers of the existing global order such as China has become one of the major questions of our times. With my research I wish to make a major contribution to exploring this issue and analyze how the US and the EU can overcome their different views of and strategies toward China and adopt a more united or at least a less divided approach. My envisaged book, therefore, will appeal not only to expert scholars but also to a larger audience of politically interested readers and not least to policymakers and their advisers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Major Publications

• Uncertain Allies: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Threat of a United Europe (monograph, Yale UP, 2022)
• Dictators and Autocrats: Securing Power Across Global Politics (ed. book, Routledge, 2022)
• Oxford Handbook of German Politics (co-ed., OUP, 2022)

 

Previous Terms

Public Policy Scholar (6/1/2012-8/31/2012); Fellow (9/5/2023-8/2/2024)