The World in 2026: Global Public Opinion One Year into the Second Trump Presidency
Guests
Timothy Garton Ash, Professor of European Studies, University of Oxford
Ivan Krastev, Chairman, Centre for Liberal Strategies
Mark Leonard, Director, ECFR
How do publics around the world view geopolitics one year into the second Trump presidency? ECFR’s 2024 polling revealed that many middle-power societies welcomed Trump’s return to the White House. Yet twelve months on, perceptions of power, polarity, and alignment have shifted towards a multipolar, post-Western world.
On the day of the launch of ECFR’s fourth Global Public Opinion Survey, this webinar will reveal how publics across 21 countries including China, India, Turkey, Russia, the US, Brazil, South Africa, South Korea and Europe now judge the balance of power. Is “America First” accelerating a shift towards a China-headed global order? Has multipolarity become a preference amongst middle powers? Have Europeans finally experienced a genuine geopolitical awakening? How can these trends help predict the foreign policy events of 2026, especially in the context of the US intervention in Venezuela?
Join Professor Timothy Garton Ash, Ivan Krastev and Mark Leonard, co-authors of the upcoming report on the survey, for a frank discussion on what global publics now believe—and what Europe and governments can no longer afford to ignore.
The event is being organized as part of ECFR’s Unlock Europe’s Majority project. ECFR partnered with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, International Centre for Defence and Security, and Think Tank Europa on the Unlock Europe’s Majority project. ECFR also collaborated with the Europe in a Changing Worldproject of the Dahrendorf Programme at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford.