EU Actorness in Times of Geopolitical Polarization and the Dual Quest for the Pursuit of Open Strategic Autonomy: A Conceptualization.

Within the context of geopolitical polarization spurred by great power rivalry over security and resources, the European Union (EU) is confronted with a dual quest: reducing asymmetric dependencies with international partners and seeking to develop greater competitiveness. China has arguably overtaken the EU in several central industrial sectors and is holding the cards for some critical resources and technologies. Subsequently, US president Trump is not hiding his contestation of Europe, and US-headquartered companies dominate key areas such as the internet, AI, banking services and military equipment. Meanwhile, Russia has gone from an unreliable neighbor and supplier to a real security threat looming over the continent. Faced with this new international reality, the EU developed a new strategic framework designed to address these two core concerns: open strategic autonomy (OSA). On the one hand, the EU seeks to remain open to international partners to increase its competitive edge, yet, on the other hand, the EU is synchronously pursuing closedness in an attempt to reduce its vulnerabilities and asymmetric dependencies. Nevertheless, it remains largely unclear how OSA is applied in the EU’s external action policy objectives. As scholarly research has shown, while OSA’s ambiguity is key to ensure wider political legitimacy amongst EU actors (Helwig and Sinkonnen, 2022; Schmitz and Seidl, 2023; Michaels and Sus, 2024), it has resulted in conflicting and at times contradictory approaches to the implementation of OSA as well. This paper therefore sheds light on how OSA’s simultaneous quest for independence and competitiveness can manifest differently in different contexts: with different actors, in different stages of the policymaking process, or in different policy areas. Drawing inspiration from the actorness literature (Bretherton and Vogler, 1999, 2006; Drieskens, 2017; Hill, 1993, 1997; Jupille and Caporaso, 1998; Niemann and Bretherton, 2013), we seek to understand: 1) how can this dual quest be understood conceptually and 2) how does OSA impact the EU’s actorness? To answer these research questions, we conduct an overview of the literature of EU external action and foreign policy to explain the EU’s push for global independence and competitiveness, along with a qualitative analysis of public discourse of various EU actors, alongside textual analysis of key EU strategic documents, to understand how OSA has impacted the EU’s actorness. This conceptual contribution can then be used as a basis for further research that seeks to explore the EU’s dual quest for OSA across different policy processes and competences.