Strategic change of course What experts advise Switzerland in dealing with Donald Trump
Less restraint, more profile: two prominent experts outline how Switzerland could score points economically and politically in the second Trump term.
09.08.2025, 09:27
SDA
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- Political scientist Daniel Warner recommends that Switzerland set up a task force to prepare for Donald Trump's unpredictable but pattern-driven political style and analyze successful strategies of other heads of state.
- Author R. James Breiding advises a proactive information campaign in the USA to position Switzerland as a reliable trading partner.
- Breiding also calls for the recruitment of leading US experts in key technologies and warns of the economic risks of an overly passive foreign policy.
In interviews with the Tamedia newspapers and the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung", the American-Swiss author R. James Breiding and the Geneva-based political scientist Daniel Warner have made recommendations on Switzerland's dealings with the USA under President Donald Trump.
According to the New York-born political scientist Daniel Warner, Switzerland would have needed a task force to prepare for Donald Trump. He had already emphasized this to several members of parliament in Bern following the election of the US president for his second term in office. According to the newspaper, Warner was deputy director of the Geneva Graduate Institute and trained diplomats, among others.
"In Trump's first term, even if he wasn't so radical back then, there were already clear signs of what he would do now," said Warner in an interview with the newspaper published on Saturday. Although Trump is completely unpredictable, he nevertheless follows certain patterns.
He admires Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, for example, who stood up to him. "I would look at how Sheinbaum deals with him and why she is relatively successful," said Warner.
He went on to advise: "Switzerland needs to find out what makes it unique, how it can market itself and how that can help it in its relations with the US."
Campaign could help
The American-Swiss author R. James Breiding also said on Saturday in an interview with the Tamedia newspapers that Switzerland should launch an information campaign, for example with a full-page advertisement in the "Wall Street Journal". This would be a clever way of showing that it is an exemplary trading partner.
He also recommended launching a systematic recruitment of the most respected academics based in the USA. "ETH and other universities should proactively recruit leading experts in areas such as AI, modular nuclear reactors and robotics," said Breiding. After all, "immense sums" will be spent on such technologies in the next decade.
He also warned against the Swiss reflex of staying out of foreign affairs. This may make sense for a "neutral political dwarf", but not for an economic giant. "The tariffs have shown that Switzerland's economic sovereignty is more at risk than its political sovereignty," said Breiding.
