Science Diplomacy and the Primacy of Competition: Security Imperatives in EU Knowledge Governance

Recent scholarship on science diplomacy increasingly emphasises geopolitical competition alongside scientific cooperation— analysing science diplomacy at the intersection of foreign policy, strategic competition, and the governance of science and technology. This framing foregrounds a persistent tension between two partially conflicting constructions of science and research: as a globally collaborative activity and shared public good, and as a national strategic asset mobilised for geopolitical advantage. Within the EU political context, science is increasingly construed in the latter mode—a strategic asset framed as a source of competitive advantage to be protected. Such protective imperatives are reflected in growing concerns over technological sovereignty, economic security, and geopolitical resilience, articulated inter alia through EU-level policy approaches that strengthen export control regimes, coordinate strategies for critical and emerging technologies, and promote dual-use research. These developments generate mounting pressure at EU and national levels to translate strategic priorities into governance practices, pressure that is increasingly felt within academic institutions under the rubric of research security. In this sense, geopolitically fuelled competition in science diplomacy is not merely discursive but is operationalised through security-oriented governance approaches that intervene directly in the organisation and practice of scientific collaboration. Against this backdrop, this paper examines how competition, articulated at the intersection of science and foreign policy, is constructed in policy concepts governing scientific research and translated into institutional governance contexts. Through an analysis of key policy texts, we follow the genealogy of policy concepts such as export controls, dual-use research, critical technologies, and research security that underpin contemporary political framings of science as a competitive asset. While these policy concepts have long histories within national and multilateral governance frameworks, their contemporary prominence reflects a marked shift in emphasis and urgency. Building on this analysis, the paper draws on interview data and ethnographic fieldwork at two Danish universities to examine how these concepts are embedded in institutional research security frameworks, with particular attention to how export controls and designations of critical research are taken up and translated in practice. We argue that contemporary science diplomacy and research security debates articulate an increasingly urgent imperative of competition. When embedded in institutional governance practices, this imperative amplifies longstanding tensions between policy-driven constructions of science and technology as geopolitical instruments and the collaborative norms underpinning scientific work and academic culture.