Out now: Two new papers on European foreign technology policy

Technology is increasingly acknowledged to determine international influence. The AI race is just the most prominent example. The EU is developing a new foreign economic policy. How can it turn it into a success?

The EU has pledged to develop a new foreign economic policy. A central feature in the discussion around a new doctrine plays digital technology. This acknowledges the growing strategic importance of technology for the influence of states. The EU's initiative aims to strengthen economic security, refine trade policy and deepen international investment partnerships.

A central feature in the tech related foreign policy race is the competition over Artificial Intelligence. Especially the release of R1, the new AI model of China's tech start-up DeepSeek, has attracted a lot of attention. In a forthcoming paper, I argue together with my colleague Clotilde Bomont that DeepSeek has disruptive effects far beyond its technological innovation. For these developments, we coin the term "pluralisation of AI". This pluralisation is equally technological as DeepSeek challenges dominant US AI approaches and business models and geographical because it opens new avenues to AI for actors around the globe.

You find the full version of our paper here.

Meanwhile, the EU's forthcoming foreign economic policy framework could reinvigorate three strategic priorities, namely the Union's trade policy, international investment partnerships and economic security. But this will only be a success if it: (i) increases the resilience of the EU’s trade policy against external shocks, notably the Trump administration’s erratic trade practices; (ii) moves beyond the EU’s current reactive approach to economic security; and (iii) uses infrastructure investment to strengthen crisis resilience both within the EU and among its international partners.

In a new paper I have co-authored with my colleague Joris Teer, we argue that the new framework should focus on enhancing the resilience of the EU and its partners against four key types of risks: threats to physical security, vulnerabilities in value chains, challenges to competitiveness and the erosion of universal values. This resembles earlier findings of the Digital Power China research consortium published in 2023.

You find the full policy brief here.