Geopolitics and Great Power Competition – The EU at a Crossroads

In recent years, the EU has faced an increasingly challenging geopolitical environment marked by Russia’s war against Ukraine, the re-election of Donald Trump in the United States, China’s assertive global posture, and growing instability in the Global South. These dynamics have placed the EU at a crossroads: as a project originally designed to transcend power politics in Europe, it now finds itself compelled to act as a geopolitical actor in its own right. The EU’s ambition to pursue “strategic autonomy” and its efforts to shape geoeconomic, security, and technological policies raise critical questions for both scholars and practitioners. This section invites panels and papers that engage with the state of the art in EU studies on geopolitics and great power competition. We particularly welcome theoretically informed contributions addressing questions such as: How is the EU navigating the tension between its integrationist foundations and the realities of great power rivalry? To what extent do new strategies in trade, industrial policy, defence, and digital regulation signal a genuine geopolitical turn? How does the EU’s position in the international system shape its relations with the United States, China, and Russia? How do internal divisions, differentiated integration, and contestation within the Union affect its external action? And how can we best theorize these developments? Contributors are encouraged to reflect on the conceptual, theoretical, and empirical implications of geopolitics and great power competition for the EU as an international actor. By bringing together diverse perspectives on these questions, the section aims to take stock of current research and advance our understanding of the EU’s evolving role in a world increasingly defined by great power competition. We welcome a broad range of methodological approaches and theoretical perspectives to examine the EU’s place in the world, its role in addressing specific policy challenges, and its wider global relationships and responsibilities. Papers and panels that contribute to theory-building and methodological innovation are particularly encouraged.