Europe’s Geoeconomic Predicament

European Political Economy

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Why is industrial policy en vogue in the European Union? The fear of falling behind has long driven European integration, but the answer used to be more market creation. Given the EU’s market-creating impetus, its tilt toward fiscal austerity, and its limits on state aid, there are many constraints to how industrial policy becomes part of the EU’s standard operating procedures.

My earlier work has traced the ideational and discursive politics behind key concepts such as open strategic autonomy and technological sovereignty, which have reoriented public policy from trade and industrial to digital policy. More recent work looked at how the EU’s flagship industrial policy tool - the important projects of common European interest - actually work on the ground. Ongoing work aims to examine the politics of Europe’s geoeconomic turn itself: why are firms not (or not equally) patriotic in how they support Europe’s quest for more autonomy over its economy?

Papers

Patriots or Profiteurs? (with R. Bosticco). Paper in progress. Explains how firms respond, economically and politically, to sovereignty-seeking policy in semiconductors and batteries.

The Costs of Conditionality (with T. Seidl and T. Wuttke). Competition & Change, 2026. Examines how the EU’s flagship industrial policy works on the ground.

Picking Losers (with T. Ergen). Regulation & Governance, 2025. Documents how decarbonization drew the EU into managing decline in targeted regions and sectors.

Moving On to Not Fall Behind? (with T. Seidl). Journal of European Public Policy, 2024. Reconstructs the “geo-dirigiste” turn through Europe’s fear of falling behind. JEPP Best Paper Prize 2024.

Europe First? (with D. Di Carlo). Journal of European Public Policy, 2023. Charts the rise of an EU industrial policy that promotes and protects the single market.

As Open as Possible, as Autonomous as Necessary (with T. Seidl). Journal of Common Market Studies, 2023. Shows how the Commission used open strategic autonomy as a coalition magnet.

When External Pressures Shift Domestic Coalitions (with J. Simons). Manuscript available upon request. Traces the Dutch shift from horizontal orthodoxy through covert verticalism to overt interventionism.

Whose Strategic Autonomy? (with D. Karas). Manuscript available upon request. Asks whether integration leaves Ukraine a raw-material supplier or moves it up the value chain.