Europe-Asia Webinar Series with YCAPS: Donald Trump 2.0 and the Future of US-China Relations

With Donald Trump now serving his second term as U.S. President, the trajectory of U.S.-China relations has entered a new and uncertain phase. Building on the confrontational policies of his first term—marked by trade wars, tech restrictions, and assertive rhetoric on Taiwan—Trump’s renewed presidency signals an even more assertive “America First” agenda. Beijing now faces heightened pressure in an increasingly polarized global order, amid domestic economic challenges and shifting strategic priorities.

As Trump reasserts unilateralism and doubles down on strategic competition, China must reassess its global posture. Will Beijing choose confrontation, recalibration, or diversification in its foreign policy and economic planning? And what role will U.S. allies and partners play as the two powers navigate deepening rivalry?

This online panel will address the following questions in particular:

• How does Trump’s second presidency alter China’s strategic calculus in the Indo-Pacific and beyond?
• What are the strategic consequences of Trump’s “America First” approach to China’s global ambitions? How might the continuation or evolution of such policies influence existing economic interdependencies?
• What are the likely economic consequences of Trump’s policies for China, particularly in the trade and technology sectors?
• How does Beijing’s perception of Trump 2.0 shape its engagement with U.S. allies and partners? In what ways does China interpret Trump’s policies as either challenges or opportunities for reformulating its foreign policy? How does the Chinese leadership reconcile domestic imperatives with external pressures under the Trump administration?
• To what extent will Trump’s policies accelerate China’s pursuit of economic self-sufficiency and alternative global partnerships?
• What role will Taiwan, military competition, and ideological narratives play in defining U.S.-China relations under Trump’s renewed leadership?

This is the seventh event in the Europe-Asia Webinar Series hosted by YCAPS’ Europe Chapter at the Stockholm Center for South Asia and Indo-Pacific Affairs (SCSA-IPA) of the Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP) in Stockholm, Sweden.

Please use this link to register via Zoom.

You will need the link and passcode provided in the confirmation email

Speakers:

Dr. Sriparna Pathak is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Admissions to Associate Dean of Careers at the Jindal School of International Affairs of O.P. Jindal Global University, Haryana, India. She teaches courses on Foreign Policy of China as well as Theories of International Relations. Her previous work experience covers Gauhati University, Don Bosco University; the Ministry of External Affairs, where she worked as a Consultant for the Policy Planning and Research Division, working on China’s domestic and foreign policies; think tanks like Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi and Kolkata respectively, South Asia Democratic Forum in Brussels where she is a Research Fellow and the Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research in New Delhi where she worked as a researcher.

Ms. Eerishika Pankaj is the Director of New Delhi-based think-tank, the Organisation for Research on China and Asia (ORCA), which focuses on decoding domestic Chinese politics and its impact on Beijing’s foreign policymaking. She is also an Editorial and Research Assistant to the Series Editor for Routledge Series on Think Asia; a Young Leader in the 2020 cohort of the Pacific Forum’s Young Leaders Program; a Commissioning Editor with E-International Relations for their Political Economy section; a Member of the Indo-Pacific Circle and a Council Member of the WICCI’s India-EU Business Council. Primarily a China and East Asia scholar, her research focuses on Chinese elite/party politics, the India-China border, water and power politics in the Himalayas, Tibet, the Indo-Pacific and India’s bilateral ties with Europe and Asia.

Dr. Brendon J. Cannon is an Associate Professor of International Security at Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE. He earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Utah, USA (2009). His research is at the nexus of international relations, security studies, and geopolitics. He has published on topics related to regional security and geopolitics, the arms industry, and shifting distributions of power across the Indo-Pacific. Cannon’s articles appear in Defence Studies, Small Wars and Insurgencies, Asian Security and Third World Quarterly. His new book, edited with Kei Hakata, is Indo-Pacific Strategies: Navigating Geopolitics at the Dawn of a New Age (Routledge, 2021). He joined Khalifa University in 2016.

Webinar Cost: Free of charge

Chair: Dr. Jagannath Panda, ISDP
Co-Chairs: Isak Nordenberg, YCAPS
Format: This event will be on-the-record. Questions are encouraged. It will be recorded.
Registration: Required via this link.