The transatlantic tech clash: Will Europe ‘de-risk’ from the United States?

The tit-for-tat trade escalation between the United States and China has dominated news cycles. In the backdrop of rising U.S.-China tensions is another—and potentially just as profound—change occurring in the U.S.-EU relationship. The Europeans may increasingly distrust U.S. technology and may focus on “de-risking” not just from China but from the United States as well.

The Trump administration’s aggressive attacks on European technology regulations and the cutoff of intelligence-sharing and weapons deliveries to Ukraine have led to fears in Europe that the United States could do something similar to it. Europe has suddenly become full of rumors that the United States could invoke a “kill switch” that would disable core military systems, including the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet, or cut off intelligence-sharing and military sales to the bloc. Fears continue to mount in Europe that the United States could weaponize its technological dependencies, particularly if trade tensions spill over into the digital and tech domains. The role of digital connectivity in advancing national security priorities, waging war, and shaping the global information environment through large language models (LLMs) and very large online platforms (VLOPs) has thus moved to the forefront of geopolitics.

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