This research workshop examines the relationship between geo-economics, innovation, national security, and great power strategic competition at a time of deepening and accelerating change to the global security order. The primary long-term national security challenge between the United States, China, and Russia and other major powers is strategic competition. The features of this twenty-first century strategic competition are significantly different from previous eras of great power rivalry, especially the US-Soviet Cold War in the second half of the twentieth century. Key factors include:
• Blurred domains: Many areas of competition now cross domains, the boundaries of which have become increasingly indistinct and porous. The most obvious are the military-civilian divide, the role of the state versus private actors in foreign investment, and gray-zone confrontations below the threshold of war. More broadly, however, the problem can also be seen in the ways that economic competition affects defense capabilities. This blurring of domains poses major challenges for the United States and its alliance partners as much of the current international security architecture, such as export control regimes, is antiquated and inadequate to cope with these changed circumstances. Moreover, the US system is designed to be specialised, with institutional safeguards that protect the independence of different agencies, which may make it more difficult to cover blurred domains.
• Economic interdependence: The economies of the great powers have become increasingly enmeshed with each other, especially those of the United States and China. Although this may mitigate some types of risks, interdependence may provide benefits to strategic rivals, and it makes the costs of the breakdown of cooperation higher.
• The primacy of geo-economics: Geo-economics, which can be defined as the use of economic instruments to promote and defend national interests and to produce beneficial geopolitical results; and the effects of other nations’ economic actions on a country’s geopolitical goals, is arguably the primary arena of great power competition, especially between the United States and China.
• Technology and innovation: One of the central areas of competition is for global technological and manufacturing supremacy, especially with the emergence of new and potentially revolutionary technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and high-performance computing.
By invitation only.
Join Stephanie Hofmann for another of the EGPP special series on the Ukraine crisis
EU and NATO member states have made big announcements after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Some who are not members of NATO, debate whether to join the military alliance. Others declare a significant increase in their defense budget and yet others again, who had opted out of the EU’s security policy, now will hold a referendum to join it. And the EU has converted institutional structures to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine. In this session, we will discuss these initiatives and asses what kind of change they signify and to what possible effect.
Speaker: Prof. Stephanie Hofmann (EUI – Schuman Centre / SPS)
Join Roberto Orsi who will explore the potential and limits of the Schmittian concept of Volk in this early 21st century Chinese context.
Speaker: Roberto Orsi
This workshop will focus on international (global and regional) organisations, European / regional foreign policies, regional integration, and power transition/rivalries.
Academics and pundits alike are currently debating the world order in which we live, and its future, with a striking focus on global and regional international organisations. These organisations are the sites of competition, rivalries, and cooperation as well as friendships, coalitions of the willing and strategic alliances – both on individual and group levels.
This workshop seeks to promote debate on the future of the world order through the exchange and dissemination of new research in research programs of international (global and regional) organisations, European / regional foreign policies, regional integration, and power transition/rivalries. The workshop will aim to address – although not exclusively – questions such as:
– What strategies do global (e.g. WTO, IMF, UN) and regional (e.g. ASEAN, AU, EU) organisations and their member states have available to navigate different – and possibly hostile – institutional settings?
– How do international organisations adapt when dealing with competition between big powers?
– What role do informal and smaller auxiliary institutional forms play in larger multilateral settings?
– Have diplomatic practices and negotiation styles as well as their content changed over time?
– Does partisan politics play a role in organisations, and if so, how?
– What is the role of associated countries in sustaining or disrupting organisational activities?
– What are the distinctive roles of non-state actors, including economic actors, in the midst of these intergovernmental bodies?
The workshop will be held on 13 – 14 October 2022 at the Robert Schuman Centre, European University Institute, Italy.
To apply, please electronically submit an abstract of maximum 300 words using the link below by 26 May 2022. Applicants will be informed of the results of the selection process by 30 June 2022. If selected, we will ask you to submit a memo of 5,000 words by 6 October 2022.
The EUI will contribute to expenses related to travel and accommodation for all participants.