A Knowledge Regime Fit for Geoeconomics? The Changing Production, Consumption and Practices of Policy Knowledge in the EU

In: European foreign affairs review, Band 29, Heft 2, S. 177-204

Abstract

With geoeconomics becoming the dominant mode of global politics, the EU has responded by adopting a raft of new policy tools. As the EU's foreign and trade policies have long been premised on the hegemony of neoliberal globalization, new policies represent a significant paradigm shift and have received detailed scholarly attention. However, the question of how the 'rise of geoeconomics' has been changing the demands for, production, practices, and institutional organization of policy knowledge remains unaddressed. Analysing the EU knowledge regime – a polity – and its political economy-specific way of producing and consuming policy knowledge – this article provides the first comprehensive examination of changes that have been engendered by (and justified with reference to) the perceived requirements of geoeconomic statecraft. Focusing on the blurring of borders between EU's foreign and security and trade policy, this article argues that we can identify important changes in the demand, supply and practices of policy knowledge production. Besides a relative de-silosization of knowledge and policymaking between traditionally separate foreign and trade policy areas, we have witnessed 'internal think tankization' with EU institutions strengthening in-house think tanks, investing more in foresight, and engaging proactively with think tanks. The latter themselves have reacted to geoeconomics by reorganizing internally and adapting to new cross-area audiences and stakeholders. Finally, the think tanks-facilitated practice of convening policymakers, experts and corporate representatives has gained importance. While the changes to the knowledge regime mapped here are ongoing and open-ended, they have important implications for understanding the EU's geoeconomic actorness, effectiveness, legitimacy and social purpose.