Transatlantic Economic Relations in 2025: Global Economic Order or Disorder?
Panelists:
Daniel Bahar, Managing Director, Rock Creek Global Advisors
Laura von Daniels, Head of the Americas Research Division, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP)
Jacob Kirkegaard, Senior Fellow, Bruegel
Penny Naas, Lead, Allied Competitiveness, German Marshall Fund of the United States
Moderator:
Peter Rashish, Vice President; Director, Geoeconomics Program
This event provides a platform to examine what a Harris or second Trump administration would mean for the U.S.-EU geoeconomic agenda. While the transatlantic economic relationship has recovered from the contentiousness during the Trump administration, the last three and a half years under President Joe Biden have seen a rapprochement in outlook that has not always led to advances in common policymaking. Whether the issue is the nexus of climate and trade, how far to derisk from the Chinese economy, or the role of the World Trade Organization, differing U.S. and EU starting points have often acted as a brake on transatlantic statecraft—particularly regarding a strategy for a renewed global economic order.
Daniel Bahar
Daniel Bahar is a Managing Director at Rock Creek Global Advisors, where he focuses on international trade and investment policy, including negotiations, market access, and regulatory matters. From 2016 to 2021, Mr. Bahar served as Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Services and Investment, responsible for development and implementation of U.S. services, investment, and digital trade policy. Previously, he served as Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Investment between 2012 and 2016 and Director for Investment at USTR from 2006 to 2012.
Laura von Daniels
Laura von Daniels has been a Head of the Americas Research Division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs/Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in Berlin since 2019. Her research focuses on transatlantic relations and U.S. foreign, economic, and financial policy. Von Daniels is currently working on a publication that examines the intersection of economic, foreign, and security policy—in particular, how concepts of “economic security” have evolved in the United States and the European Union—and what norms underlie policy decisions on economic instruments such as sanctions, exports, and investment controls.
Jacob Kirkegaard
Jacob Funk Kirkegaard is a Senior fellow at Bruegel and a Non-resident Senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). From 2020 to August 2024, he was a senior fellow with the Brussels office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. From 2013 until 2020, he was a senior fellow at PIIE, based in Washington, DC. He has also worked with the Danish Ministry of Defense, the United Nations in Iraq, and in the private financial sector.
Penny Naas
Penny Naas is Lead of the German Marshall Fund’s Allied Competitiveness Initiative and an adviser for TradeExperettes, a global organization of women trade experts. She opened and was Managing Director of Citigroup’s first government affairs office in Brussels between 2007 and 2012 before serving as President for international public affairs and global sustainability at UPS from 2012 to 2019. She started her career at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where she worked for 13 years on international economic issues and advancing the commercial interests of U.S. companies in Europe.
Peter Rashish
Peter S. Rashish is Vice President and Director of the Geoeconomics Program at AGI. He has previously served as Vice President for Europe and Eurasia at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and as Senior Advisor for Europe at McLarty Associates. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Jean Monnet Institute in Paris and a Senior Advisor to the European Policy Centre in Brussels. His commentaries have been published in The New York Times, the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, and The National Interest, and he has appeared on PBS, CNBC, CNN, and NPR.
