In this event hosted by the Centre for Grand Strategy, Dr. Francesca Ghiretti introduces her latest book 'Chinese Investments and the Economic Security Turn in Europe'

Speaker: Dr. Francesca Ghiretti 

This book provides an in-depth analysis of how European states’ economic interactions with China have become a security issue. Based on 100 interviews with scholars, journalists, policy makers, and politicians from across Europe, the book underscores the importance of the policy making process that led to the adoption of investment screening in European nations for the development of the EU's economic security approach. The book details how the economic security shift in Europe is attributed to changes such as China’s growing economic presence, the persistence of non-market practices, the loss of competitiveness, and the use of economic statecraft.

About the Speaker

Dr. Francesca Ghiretti is Research Leader at RAND Europe, where she leads the work on China and on economic security. She is also an adjunct fellow (Non-Resident) at the Wadhwani Center for AI and Advanced Technologies, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Previously, she worked as senior geoeconomics fellow at a London-based AI company and as analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS), Europe’s largest think tank on China. She spent a semester as visiting fellow with the Asia Programme of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). Ghiretti also worked as research fellow Asia at the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), where she led a project on the Belt and Road Initiative, as geopolitical analyst for a London-based hedge fund, and as an assistant to Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, former secretary general of NATO. She is the author of "Chinese Investments and the Economic Security Turn in Europe. Where economy and security meet" (Bristol University Press, January 2025). Ghiretti’s writing and commentary have appeared in the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Politico. She received her Ph.D. from the Centre for Grand Strategy, Department of War Studies at King’s College London.

About the Centre for Grand Strategy

The Centre for Grand Strategy at King's College London seeks to bring a greater degree of historical and strategic expertise to statecraft, diplomacy and foreign policy. Through a series of research projects, external engagement activities and a number of undergraduate and executive education teaching programmes, the Centre focuses on “knowledge transfer”: bringing top-class academic expertise to bear on the policy-making process and the public debate about foreign policy.