This volume examines some of the major challenges and opportunities for Europe in the light of the intensifying US-China global strategic rivalry. In doing so, the book investigates European roles and behavior in the contemporary US-China-Europe triangular relationship.

While the book's focus is on Europe, the contributors originate from, or are based in, the US and China, thus presenting a unique outside-in perspective to the analysis of European conduct in the areas of security, geo-politics, geo-economics, global governance, development, and climate change. Each area is investigated by one American and one Chinese scholar, respectively, presenting the different views held on Europe’s behavior and positioning in the US and China. In addition to providing critical assessments of Europe’s roles and performance as seen through the prism of their respective country, contributors also pose concrete policy recommendations for Europe.

The book will appeal to students, scholars, and researchers of political science and international relations, as well as policy-makers interested in a better understanding of Europe's role in the US-China rivalry and its relationship to the two countries.

Sebastian Biba, Ph.D., is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Political Science at Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, as well as an Associate with the Institute of Asian Studies at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg, Germany. In the past, he held visiting positions at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), the University of Sydney, and Peking University. One of his major research interests in recent years has been Europe/Germany-US-China triangular relations. His output on the topic has appeared in leading IR and Area Studies journals such as International Affairs, Journal of Chinese Political Science, and European Foreign Affairs Review. Additionally, Sebastian is the co-editor (with Reinhard Wolf) of the 2021 Routledge volume Europe in an Era of Growing Sino-American Competition: Coping with an Unstable Triangle. His research on other topics has been published, among others, in Security Dialogue, Third World Quarterly, and Journal of Contemporary China, and he is also the author of a monograph on China’s Hydro-politics in the Mekong printed by Routledge.