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In person icon ​​The EU as "digital" geopolitical actor

Asia
Cyber Politics
European Politics
International Relations
USA
Global
Internet
Technology
P001
Céleste Bonnamy
Sciences Po Lille
Anna Herranz-Surrallés
Maastricht University

In person icon Building: Colégio Almada Negreiros, Floor: -1, Room: A13

Thursday 09:00 - 10:30 WEST (20/06/2024)

Abstract

Over the last decade, digital technologies have emerged as one of the key dimensions of global geopolitical competition and rivalry, impacting on a broad range of sectors and issues, such as cybersecurity, dis- and misinformation, creative industries, or extraction of raw materials used to produce said technologies. Notably, new tensions have surfaced in global affairs with the USA and China emerging as the main poles of digital innovation through their respective "Big Techs": the GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft) and the BATX (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi). This development raises a series of issues with clear geopolitical implications, including market-building (market power, risk of market failures), security and defence (cybersecurity, sensitive data), and human rights (right to privacy, intellectual property). While the European Union (EU) and its member states have yet to produce equivalent influence through Big Tech and has consequently struggled to find its place in this new balance of power, it has mainly taken the lead on the regulation of new technologies and has accelerated the development of a new digital platform regulation agenda over the past decade. This includes, for example, the recent Digital Service Act and Digital Markets Act that directly impact the biggest non European platforms. Thus, this regulatory activity can also be seen as an instrument of external action whereby the EU is defining its role as a normative power in global governance. With this panel, we seek to explore the nexus between the EU’s regulation of digital technologies and its role as a geopolitical and normative actor in an era of rivalry among technological powers.

Title Details
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The European Union’ Approach to Governance of Strategic Technologies: Between Geopolitical Competition and Multilateral Cooperation View Paper Details
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Unveiling "Cultural Market Power Europe": EU Digital Policy-Making as a Geopolitical Force View Paper Details