The EU’s Strategic Agenda: Digital Sovereignty, Security, and the (Geo)Politics of AI Governance

Abstract

This panel explores the European Union’s (EU) pursuit of digital sovereignty as a complex transformation encompassing public opinion, the governance of knowledge, cybersecurity, and the political economy of digital infrastructures. Moving beyond state-centric and solely regulatory perspectives, the contributions examine how sovereignty is expressed, challenged, and enacted across societal, institutional, and material domains. The papers combine research on public support for sovereignist digital policies under geopolitical pressure with analyses of the EU’s shift towards research and knowledge security, the technologisation of cybersecurity governance, and the growing influence of procurement and private actors. The panel illustrates how digital sovereignty is shaped through narratives, governance practices, and infrastructures, advancing debates on EU geopolitical agency, public-private power, and the limits of technocratic governance.

Title	Details
Rally Around the Regulatory Polity? External Threats Public Support for EU Digital Sovereignty Policies	View Paper Details
Governing Knowledge, Shaping Europe: Research Security in the EU’s Geopolitical Turn	View Paper Details
Stuck in the Middle, EU? Origins and Evolution of Technical Solutions to (Fundamentally) Political Problems in EU Cybersecurity Policy	View Paper Details
Between Digital Regulation and Technological Development: The Role of Procurement in the Political Economy of European Security Governance	View Paper Details
Strategic Autonomy” as Narrative Engine for Policy Change in the EU’s Digital Sector.	View Paper Details