Director
Geopolitics and Geoeconomics; China; EU-Russia relations; transatlantic relations; EU politics and institutions; public diplomacy and nation branding; UK foreign policy
English, French, German
Mark Leonard is co-founder and director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, the first pan-European think–tank. He is also the current Henry A Kissinger chair in foreign policy and international relations at the US Library of Congress, Washington DC. His topics of focus include geopolitics and geoeconomics, China, EU politics and institutions.
Leonard hosts the weekly podcast “Mark Leonards’s World in 30 Minutes” and writes a syndicated column on global affairs for Project Syndicate. Previously he worked as director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform and as director of the Foreign Policy Centre, a think-tank he founded at the age of 24 under the patronage of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. In the 1990s, Leonard worked for the think-tank Demos where his Britain™ report was credited with launching Cool Britannia. Mark has spent time in Washington, D.C. as a Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and in Beijing as a visiting scholar at the Chinese Academy for Social Sciences.
He was Chairman of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Geoeconomics until 2016.
Honoured as a “Young Global Leader” of the World Economic Forum, he spends a lot of time helping governments, companies, and international organisations make sense of the big geo-political trends of the twenty-first century. He is a regular speaker and prolific writer and commentator on global issues, the future of Europe, China’s internal politics, and the practice of diplomacy and business in a networked world. His essays have appeared in publications such as Foreign Affairs, the Financial Times, the New York Times, Le Monde, Süddeutsche Zeitung, El Pais, Gazeta Wyborcza, Foreign Policy, the New Statesman, the Daily Telegraph, The Economist, Time, and Newsweek.
As well as writing and commenting frequently in the media on global affairs, Leonard is the author of best-selling books. His first book, Why Europe will run the 21st Century, was published in 2005 and translated into 19 languages. Leonard’s second book, What does China think? was published in 2008 and translated into 15 languages. He has published an edited volume on Connectivity Wars and in September 2021, his latest book on this topic The Age of Unpeace. How Connectivity Causes Conflict was released.
The meeting of Angela Merkel, Dmitri Medvedev and Nicolas Sarkozy at the French seaside resort of Deauville on Monday 18th has the right agenda – European security – but the wrong actors. A trialogue involving the EU, Russia and Turkey would be the best way to rethink security in Europe
The EU needs to build a trialogue on security with Russia and Turkey
The question of how the EU should deal with the world’s rising powers will dominate the informal Gymnich foreign ministers’ meeting and the European Council meeting over the next week. In a memo to European leaders, François Godement and Mark Leonard argue that the financial crisis may have increased Europe’s leverage when it deals with Beijing
Building the EAS is not simply about backroom Brussels politics and bureaucratic infighting. It is about giving Europe the means to punch its weight in a changing world
Response to the Haiti tragedy; the struggling mission in Afghanistan; the economic crisis. The west is in a ’20 year crisis’
Western governments need to show they are getting serious. Otherwise we will end up with another Copenhagen
The EU needs to take a good look at its relations and position in the world ? Lady Ashton is well placed to integrate its strengths
ECFR publishes a collection of views from key Russian intellectuals
Open letter: Twenty years after half of Europe was freed, a new wall is being built – across Georgia
The next generation of EU technocrats will need to be populists as well
Citizens of global powers are upbeat about a second Trump presidency – but this is by no means universal, particularly among traditional US allies
Voters in both the UK and major EU states are open to compromise. Leaders on both sides of the Channel should use this political space for an ambitious reset
New research confirms Ukrainians’ determination to fight and Europeans’ steady support for Kyiv. But a major divide lurks beneath this appearance of unity
China’s ideas could become the country’s next big export. The Idea of China examines Chinese thinking about global order, AI, demographic change, and more – and considers how these ideas could influence the world
Mainstream parties are hoping to prevent an anticipated far-right surge in this year’s European Parliament election. But the results of ECFR’s latest opinion poll suggest their current strategy could backfire – and what they should do instead
As Russia’s war on Ukraine approaches its second anniversary, European leaders need to prevent Vladimir Putin from capitalising on war fatigue in the West. To maintain public support for backing Kyiv in this crucial election year, they should make clear that a Russian victory is not peace
European politics is divided between ‘crisis tribes,’ formed from different traumas. Climate and migration are set to be especially influential in this year’s European Parliament election
A new global opinion poll for ECFR reveals that many people outside the West want Europe and the US in their lives for all they have to offer – but that does not translate into full political alignment. People instead prefer an a la carte arrangement, in which their governments pragmatically select their partners depending on the matter at hand
Middle powers are shaping a fragmented world for which Europe is ill prepared. To protect its interests and values, the EU needs a foreign policy strategy that emphasises its wide range of interdependencies
Chinese thinkers are drawing four key lessons from Russia’s war on Ukraine, informing their views on: America, Russia, Taiwan, and economic interdependence with the West
Incoming German chancellor Friedrich Merz is an unlikely candidate to lead a decisive break with the US. But an erstwhile über-Atlanticist and fiscal conservative might be the only German politician who can credibly bury the country’s economically disastrous “debt brake” and pave the way for a truly independent Europe
Trump’s obsession with buying Greenland has turned the island into a geopolitical flashpoint, leaving Europeans uneasy and Denmark navigating choppy waters over the island’s political future
Donald Trump’s return marks the start of an anti-Davos age, defined by the lack not only of a global order but also of any desire to create one. The world should expect deeper fragmentation and chaos in the face of unresolved crises and frequent disruptions
Ten key foreign policy trends for the year ahead
Faced with the threat that Donald Trump poses to Europe’s economic and military security, European leaders must avoid both panic and complacency. The best way to do that is to use the time between now and 20 January 2025, to agree on their common interests and work out how to defend them
Kamala Harris’s ascent to the top of the Democratic ticket has eliminated Donald Trump’s polling lead and allowed Europeans to contemplate alternatives to what would be their worst-case scenario. Yet, even if Harris wins, it would be foolish to expect complete continuity with the Biden administration
While Democrats frame the US presidential election as an existential battle between democracy and authoritarianism, Republicans are trying to position Donald Trump as a champion of the working class. To win in November, Kamala Harris’s campaign must show voters how wrong this narrative is
When the UK’s prime minister hosts other European leaders this week, their old protector will be absent. A shared approach to security is now vital
Given the state of the world today, it is difficult to imagine a worse time for Europe to be left rudderless. But with little room to manoeuvre after the European Parliament election, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz are in no position to steer the EU through major challenges
While the traditional Franco-German axis has fallen short of providing the kind of unifying leadership that the EU so desperately needs, the addition of Poland could change everything. And should Donald Trump win the US presidential election, this triumvirate would become Europe’s best hope for salvation
Power is now defined by control over flows of people, goods, money, and data, and via the connections they establish. Only states that see the new map of geopolitical power clearly will be able to control the modern world
New ECFR/YouGov research reveals huge fluidity in current voting intentions: 70 percent of Europeans certain to vote are yet to make their choice. Nearly 100m swing voters are up for grabs
Mark Leonard welcomes Kirill Shamiev to unpack the recent phone call between US president Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin
Mark Leonard welcomes Adam Tooze to unpack the role of class in the second Trump presidency, and its implications for the US and Europe
Mark Leonard welcomes ECFR experts to unpack how Donald Trump’s presidency is reshaping Europe’s domestic politics and foreign policy
Mark Leonard welcomes Marie Dumoulin to discuss the recent Ukraine-US agreement on a 30-day ceasefire and its implications for the conflict with Russia
Mark Leonard welcomes Piotr Buras to unpack a weekend of geopolitical developments and controversies on Europe’s defence and nuclear dependence on the US
Mark Leonard welcomes Julien Barnes-Dacey, Ellie Geranmayeh and Hugh Lovatt to discuss Syria’s evolving political landscape, its future trajectories—and the strategic implications for Europe and beyond
Mark Leonard welcomes Nicu Popescu, an ECFR distinguished policy fellow leading our work on the European security initiative, to discuss America’s decision to pause aid shipments to Ukraine—and how European countries are trying to turn this around
Mark Leonard welcomes Searching for Deutschland co-hosts Jeremy Cliffe and Jana Puglierin, and ECFR colleagues Piotr Buras and Marie Dumoulin, to discuss the impact of Germany’s federal election on the country and beyond
The final episode of Searching for Deutschland—a special crossover with the World in 30 Minutes—sees experts from Berlin, London, Paris and Warsaw break down the…
Mark Leonard welcomes Hal Brands to discuss his new book, The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern World
Most people in the broader world think President Trump will not just be good for America but that he will bring peace to Ukraine and the…
As the world prepares for a second Trump presidency and its transformative impact on the global order, Europe faces an urgent need to not only…
The result of the US election is sending shock waves across the world and Europeans, including the UK, are trying to figure out how it…
With increased US-China competition likely to shape Trump’s second term, significant attention in Washington is focused on the primacists, prioritisers and restrainers vying to shape…
As discussions intensify on both sides of the Atlantic about the implications of a Trump 2.0 presidency, European leaders are now having to confront a…
In celebration of the opening of the ECFR Washington office, this public panel will look at the state of public opinion on the war in…
Mark Leonard will launch his newly released paperback edition of his book – The Age of Unpeace: How Connectivity Causes Conflict (Penguin) with a brand-new essay on the war in Ukraine and its implications for geopolitics
With the EU’s High Representative as our honoured guest, the panel will explore the birth of a geopolitical Europe and the new dimensions of European power with a focus on the tech, economic, and security terrains
In collaboration with the Embassy of Japan in Madrid, ECFR has organised a public virtual debate to explore how the EU and the Indo-Pacific can build a strategic alliance and how the EU-Japan relationship can drive this process
How central is the EU to the US and its interests in Europe? And how does the public in European countries view Biden’s America?
My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as soon as possible so that, step by step, we can truly achieve independence from the United States
Mark Leonard analyses Europe’s declaration of independence from the United States following Friedrich Merz’s victory
The historic challenge for Friedrich Merz is to help build a Europe that can stand on its own two feet
Mark Leonard on Merz’s call for stronger European defence capabilities
Mark Leonard on Starmer demonstrating that Britain is a responsible stakeholder for European security
Mark Leonard on Germany’s political landscape and its place in European politics ahead of the German elections
Mark Leonard, Ivan Krastev, and Timothy Garton Ash on ECFR’s latest global survey
