Bruno Maçães is a Portuguese politician, political scientist, business strategist, and author. He studied at the University of Lisbon and Harvard University, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation under Harvey Mansfield. He is currently a Nonresident Senior Fellow at Hudson Institute in Washington. He was a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe.
Public career
His tenure as Secretary of State for European Affairs in Portugal took place during the worst period of the country's financial crisis. In 2013 the main Greek newspaper wrote that he was very German in his economic views. He told an audience in London that Germany has a "hypocritical" view to trade negotiations. He was described by Wolfgang Munchau as "reinventing the wheel" after tabling a number of proposals for eurozone reform. In April 2014 he defended an energy pact between the United States and Europe to face the Russian threat. Eventually the idea came to some fruition when Portugal became the first country in Europe to receive LNG cargo from the United States. His strategy was to create an energy revolution and move Europe to the Atlantic. Another of his goals was to craft a new digital strategy for the European Union, more focused on industrial innovation. He was the first European politician to visit Mariupol after it became the frontline in the Ukraine military conflict. He was interviewed for the BBCTV showHardTalk in January 2015. He left government in November 2015. He was decorated by the President of Romania. In an interview with TRT in March 2017 he strongly criticized the Dutch government for its ban on Turkish politicians. In July 2017 he accused Italy of violating banking union rules.
''The Dawn of Eurasia''
His book The Dawn of Eurasia, published by Penguin in January 2018, argues that the distinction between Europe and Asia has disappeared. His argument is that it is increasingly difficult to draw a border between the two continents. He has argued that Europe cannot fail to respond to the New Silk Road projected by China. In a polemical paper he accused the European Union of missing the boat on the third globalization. He described the upcoming Belt and Road summit as "just as important as the G20." Tyler Cowen wrote that The Dawn of Eurasia was the best book he had read all year. In 2018 The Dawn of Eurasia was granted the international Ranald MacDonald Award.
Novel
In 2018 he announced in a podcast with Linda Yueh that he was working on a large novel set in the Belt and Road world.
Opinion
In July 2020 he suggested that South East Asia's response to Covid-19 was helped by an endemic immunity to bat virus.
