Laura von Daniels

Laura von Daniels is currently a visiting fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings. She is a senior research fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs/Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in Berlin. Since December 2019, she leads SWP’s Americas Research Division. Her research focuses on trans-Atlantic relations and U.S. foreign, economic, and financial policy. Von Daniels is currently working on a publication that examines the intersection of economic, foreign, and security policy—in particular, how concepts of “economic security” have evolved in the United States and the European Union—and what norms underlie policy decisions on economic instruments such as sanctions, export, and investment controls.

Von Daniels has written on global economic policy and financial policy issues. Her work on U.S. economic policy included in-depth policy analysis of trade and industrial policy under the Trump and Biden administrations. Her research on “Economy and National Security” was recently published as a report for the SWP. Previous work focused on financial crises in emerging markets and the role of government policies and fiscal and debt rules in sovereign debt crises.

In addition, her research focuses on a range of broader trans-Atlantic issues, including U.S. foreign and security policy vis-à-vis Europe and the EU’s attempts to implement its open strategic autonomy agenda.

She is an advisor to the Bundestag, the German government, and European institutions on issues of trans-Aatlantic relations, trade and financial policy, and economic security. She has been featured on German and international television and radio, including ARD, ZDF, DW English, Al Jazeera English, and Deutschlandfunk. Her analysis has been featured in articles in dpa, Reuters, Handelsblatt, Der Spiegel, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Wirtschaftswoche, ZEIT online, and The Washington Post.

Von Daniels received her doctorate and master’s in political science, with a concentration in international political economy, from the Free University Berlin. During her doctoral studies, she conducted research at Princeton University as a visiting student on a scholarship with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). In 2011-12 she was a Thyssen Foundation postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University.

Affiliations:

• Munich Security Conference, Young Leaders Network, alumna