Skip to main content
Audio Interview

Trade wars: a geoeconomic weapon or growing political misjudgement?

Published on September 30, 2026   32 min

Other Talks in the Playlist: Interviews with Business Leaders and Scholars

Please wait while the transcript is being prepared...
0:00
Interviewer: Today, I'm interviewing Dr. Daniel Gros, Director of the Institute for European Policymaking at Bocconi University, on his article, The Mirage of Geoeconomics, published in Project Syndicate on 11th of June 2025. A link to Dr. Gros' impressive biography accompanies this interview. Dr. Gros, thank you very much for accepting the invitation. May I start by asking this, you state that Trump, for example, is pursuing such an ill-conceived tariff strategy that it can only be counterproductive. Isn't that to assume that you know what his objective is? Is it not at least theoretically possible that a policy of a government could be to maximize controlling power even if it leads to or is even achieved through the lowering of living standards? Is it not possible that while President Trump might be getting his tactics wrong, the pursuit of power could be achieved through a policy of non-dependence in which the use of tariffs is part of the policy? Is it for this reason why, in the penultimate sentence of your article, I quote "All of this should serve as a warning that the blind embrace of geoeconomic activism may prove not only ineffective but even counterproductive." you use both the phrase "the blind embrace"

Quiz available with full talk access. Request Free Trial or Login.

Hide

Trade wars: a geoeconomic weapon or growing political misjudgement?

Embed in course/own notes