To delve deeper into the concepts covered in REMIT’s first conference, to provide a comprehensive overview of each session’s topics, and to offer participants a glimpse of what awaits them (or why you should register if you haven’t already!), we’ll be rolling out a Session Series in the weeks leading up to the event.
Next up, Parallel Session 3!
| May 16, 14.00-15.30 | Session 3 The Governance of Strategic Technologies: Geopolitics and Advocacy Moderator: Dr. Katja Creutz, Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Finland Speakers: Prof. Thomas Christiansen, LUISS Guido Carli University, Italy; Dr. Flavia Lucenti, LUISS Guido Carli University, Italy; Dr. Ville Sinkkonen, Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Finland; Prof. Sophie Vanhoonacker, Maastricht University, Netherlands; Assoc.Prof. Catherine Yuk-ping Lo, Maastricht University, Netherlands; Mahmoud Javadi, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands; Siyan Amber Qiao, Maastricht University, Netherlands; Dr. Max Smeets, European Cyber Conflict Research Initiative Discussants: Prof. Mariarosaria Taddeo, University of Oxford, UK; Prof. Nicholas Thomas, City University of Hong Kong, China |
The hosts of parallel session 3 are REMIT partners Finnish Institute of International Affairs in, of course, Finland, and LUISS Guido Carli University from Italy.
The rising relevance of global technological governance in the current age, arguably defined by the “return of geopolitics”, has prompted greater attention to understanding how the rules governing specific technological applications come about, who makes these rules and regulations, how this happens, and with what effects.
At present the United States, China and the European Union are the key actors when it comes to strategic technology governance, whether assessed in terms of technological capabilities, innovative potential, or regulatory capacity. Possible cooperation as well as political contestation among these three actors will likely define how technology will be understood, framed, and utilized in global politics in the coming decades. At the same time, their relations with other relevant powers in both regional and global fora, should be seen as critical in determining how contests over technological innovation, attempts at de-risking or efforts towards global regulation unfold.
This panel explores the ways in which the main geopolitical actors approach the governance of civilian and military applications in key technology sectors, both separately and in relation to one another. It also explores the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) as a conceptual framework for analysing the unfolding contests over and cooperation on the global governance of strategic technologies.
The panel draws from an upcoming special issue in Geopolitics, edited by Thomas Christiansen, Ville Sinkkonen and Sophie Vanhoonacker and a Forum in the International Studies Review edited by Catherine Yuk-ping Lo, Michal Onderco and Carolina Polito. Both publications include contributions from several REMIT experts as well as a number of external scholars.
Session moderator Dr. Katja Creutz from FIIA answered some questions to open the session topics a bit more.
1. What is the importance of holding conversations on strategic technology and technology governance
Technology and how to govern it has become a central feature of great power rivalry between the United States and China, which also involves the European Union and its economic security. Moreover, how technology is governed affects also the rights of EU citizens making the matter important for all of us. Thus it is important to discuss how the rules governing specific technological applications come about, who makes these rules and regulations, how this happens, and with what effects.
2. What can participants expect from attending this session?
The session presents two special issues that are being prepared under REMIT, one focussing on the geopolitics of technology governance, and the other exploring the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) in relation to strategic technologies. The panel showcases the academic endeavours within the project and participants can expect to engage with the positions of various key actors and how they relate to each other. The ACF will be discussed as a new conceptual framework to understand also dynamics in the global scene rather than as a tool of analysis for national public policy change.
3. What aspect are you most looking forward to being explored in the session, considering the speakers and their specialties?
The panel session features many speakers with topics ranging from the United States and multilateralism to that of how to govern human genome editing. Its aim is to provide a smorgasbord of the many issues that fall under geopolitics and technology governance, and I look forward to learning about the multitude of perspectives and questions embroiled in the topic.
4. Which other session are you most looking forward to attending in the 1st REMIT conference?
While the programme is overall looking incredibly vast, I look forward to the roundtable with REMIT’s Stakeholder Advisory Board Debate. The roundtable provides an excellent opportunity to familiarise oneself with the views of senior experts close to the project, as well compare notes between the different regions of the world.
Session Speakers
Dr. Katja Creutz is the Programme Director of the Global Security and Governance Research Programme at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. She specializes in international law and global governance, in particular issues of responsibility, human rights and non-state actor. She is the lead of REMIT research work package 4 on Geopolitics and Technology Governance.
Thomas Christiansen is Professor of Political Science and European Integration at Luiss University, Rome. He previously held positions at Maastricht University, at the European Institute of Public Administration, at Aberystwyth University of Wales and at Essex University. He is Executive Editor of the Journal of European Integration and co-editor (with Sophie Vanhoonacker) of the ‘European Administration Governance’ book series at Palgrave Macmillan. He has published widely on different aspects of European Union politics. He co-authored, with Emil Kirchner and Uwe Wissenbach, The European Union and China (London: Palgrave, 2019) and co-edited, with Emil Kirchner and Han Dorussen Security Relations between the European Union and China (Cambridge: Cambridge, 2016). The Contestation of Expertise in the European Union (London: Palgrave), co-edited with Johan Adriaensen and Vigjilenca Abazi, The Making of European Security Policy, co-edited with Roberta Haar, Sabina Lange and Sophie Vanhoonacker (London: Routledge) and Security Relations between the European Union and Asian Partners, co-edited with Emil Kirchner and Tan See Seng (London: Palgrave) were all published in 2021, followed by the publication of The Routledge Handbook of Parliamentary Admnistrations (London, Routledge), co-edited with Elena Griglio and Nicola Lupo, in 2023. In the period 2019-2023 he was academic coordinator of the EU-funded research network EAST (EU-Asia Security and Trade Relations) involving seven universities and think tanks across three continents.
Flavia Lucenti is a postdoctoral researcher at LUISS University, Department of Political Science, for the EU Horizon Project REMIT. Her research interests include IR theory, China, Russia, technology and norms. Previously, she worked as a research assistant at the University of Oxford for the EU Horizon Project EU3D and as a postdoctoral research fellow and adjunct professor at the University of Bologna. Flavia was also an adjunct professor at the University of Roma Tre and a senior teaching assistant in International Relations at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. She holds a PhD in Political Studies and International Relations from the University of Roma Tre. During her doctoral studies she was a visiting PhD student at the University of Hong Kong, the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and the European University Institute. From 2020 to 2023 she was a member of the Early Career Development Group of the EISA and in 2022 she was part of the annual cohort of the Next Generation Policy Expert Network, a program launched by Chatham House and the Korea Foundation. Currently, Flavia is a deputy editor for Global Policy:Next Generation, the annual edition of the academic journal Global Policy from Durham University.
Ville Sinkkonen is a Senior Research Fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Center on US Politics and Power. His research focuses on US foreign policy, great-power politics, normative power, and the politics of trust in international relations.
Sinkkonen is the author of A Comparative Appraisal of Normative Power: The European Union, the United States and the January 25th, 2011 Revolution in Egypt (Brill, 2015), and his work has been published in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, the Journal of Transatlantic Studies, and European Foreign Affairs Review, among others. He holds an LL.D. (International Law) from the University of Turku, where he defended his doctoral dissertation Failing hegemony? Four essays on the global engagement of the United States of America in the 21st Century in December 2020.
Sinkkonen is the chairperson of the Finnish International Studies Association (FISA) and co-editor of the Nordic Review of International Studies (NRIS).
Sophie Vanhoonacker is Professor in Administrative Governance at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Maastricht University. From 2016 to 2020, she was also dean of the faculty. Prior to her appointment at the UM she was a faculty member of the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA). She is co-editor of the ‘New European Union Series’ of Oxford University Press (with Dermot Hodson) and the ‘European Administrative Governance’ book series at Palgrave Macmillan (with Thomas Christiansen).
Her research focuses on the institutional aspects of EU External Relations and administrative governance in the area of foreign and security policy. In her latest work, she has focused on the emerging EU level system of diplomacy and the EU’s response to the rapidly changing international geopolitical context. Her most recent publications include a co-edited volume, with Christopher Hill and Mike Smith on International Relations and the European Union (Oxford: Oxford U.P.) and an article together with Ana Juncos on ‘The ideational power of strategic autonomy in EU security and external economic policies’ (Journal of Common Market Studies, 2024).
Catherine Yuk-ping Lo is Assistant Professor of International Relations and Global Health at University College Maastricht, Maastricht University. She is the author of HIV/AIDS in China and India: Governing Health Security (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). Her book won the 2017 International Studies Association Global Health Section Book Prize. She is one of the co-editors (with Anoma van der Veere and Florian Schneider) of Public Health in Asia during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Global Health Governance, Migrant Labour, and International Health Crises (Amsterdam University Press, 2022). She has consulted for the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Netherlands-China global health cooperation. In the REMIT project, she specifically examines the development of health biotechnology in China and its cooperation and/or competition with the US and the EU.
Mahmoud Javadi serves as an AI Governance Researcher at Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) in The Netherlands. In this capacity, he plays a role in an EU-funded research consortium titled ‘Reignite Multilateralism via Technology’ (REMIT). Before assuming his current position, he was associated with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where his focus lay in conducting research on EU external relations. His academic background includes a Master of Arts in Transnational Security Governance from the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Italy.
Siyuan (Amber) Qiao, a PhD candidate at Maastricht University, is researcher contributing to the REMIT WP4 project, which centers on Blockchain and Digital Currency. Her research focuses on how CBDC affects geopolitical competition as an alternative instrument of global cross-border payment.
Max Smeets is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich and Co-Director of the European Cyber Conflict Research Initiative and European Cyber Conflict Research Incubator. He is the author of ‘No Shortcuts: Why States Struggle to Develop a Military Cyber- Force’ (Oxford University Press & Hurst Publishers, 2022) and co-editor of ‘Deter, Disrupt or Deceive? Assessing Cyber Conflict as an Intelligence Contest’ (Georgetown University Press, 2023) and ‘Cyberspace and Instability’ (Edinburgh University Press, 2023).Max is an affiliate at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) and an associate fellow at Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). He also lectures on cyber warfare and defense as part of the Senior Officer course at the NATO Defense College in Rome. Max received a BA in Economics, Politics and Statistics summa cum laude from University College Roosevelt, Utrecht University and an MPhil (Brasenose College) and DPhil (St. John’s College) in International Relations from the University of Oxford.
Mariarosaria Taddeo is Professor in Digital Ethics and Defence Technologies at the University of Oxford, Programme Director at the Oxford Internet Institute and holds a fellowship at the Alan Turing Institute. Her focus is on the ethical governance of digital technologies, including AI in national defense and cybersecurity. Taddeo has published over 150 articles in top-tier journals. She currently leads a project on ethical AI use for national security, funded by the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. Additionally, she has held influential roles in various projects and think tanks, advising on cybersecurity policies for organizations like NATO. She also serves as editor-in-chief of Minds & Machines (SpringerNature). Taddeo has received numerous accolades for her work, including the World Technology Award for Ethics and recognition as one of the top women in technology by ComputerWeekly. Most recently in April 2024 she was awarded the title of Grand Ufficiale al Merito della Repubblica Italiana for the impact of her research.
Nicholas (Nick) Thomas is an Associate Professor at the City University of Hong Kong. He works on the intersection of health and security studies, with a focus on East Asia, principally China. His current research centers on the intersection of pandemic responses and trust in East and Southeast Asia. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health (FRSPH), a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society (FRAS) of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.