What is Strategic? IPCEIs and the Emergence of European Strategic Intelligence

A defining feature of the global ‘return of industrial policy’ is the growing willingness of governments to direct economic activity into ‘strategic’ technologies. However, identifying what technologies are strategic is far from trivial. It requires the analytical and methodological capacity to monitor and forecast technological developments as well as the political and discursive capacity to develop an understanding of ‘strategic’ technologies that is derived from and justified in terms of broader socio-political goals. But while many have made the case for—or lamented the lack of—strategic intelligence, few have empirically investigated how strategic intelligence is actually developed and institutionalized. In this paper, we address this gap by looking at emergence of strategic intelligence in the European Union (EU), focusing on one of the flag ship initiatives of the EU’s new-found penchant for market activism: the Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEIs). Based on primary documents (e.g. meeting minutes, internal reports, etc.) as well as original interviews with companies and policymakers at both the EU and member state level, we document how the institutionalization of strategic intelligence in the EU is not a linear, technocratic process but one characterized by discontinuity, political contestation, and policy learning.