The EU as a Global Strategic Actor (ESP Series 2)
It is hard to overstate the innovative capacity of the US and China. To compete on equal footing, the EU must leverage its strategic edge: the collaborative nature of its own flagship R&I programme, now the largest research coalition in the world.
Horizon Europe’s Scientific Answer to a Bipolar World
It is hard to overstate the innovative capacity of the US and China. To compete on equal footing, the EU must leverage its strategic edge: the collaborative nature of its own flagship R&I programme, now the largest research coalition in the world.
Securing Arctic Connectivity Amid Great Power Competition
The European Union needs to define an Arctic Strategy that takes into account both EU digital sovereignty and security issues in the region.
A Framework for Reparations-Backed Lending, Applied to Russia’s Frozen Assets
In December 2025, the EU considered using €210 billion in frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine but stepped back from the plan. Not because the legal case collapsed, but because nobody had priced what the instrument would actually cost and who would carry that cost if it went wrong.
That question has not gone away. It has been deferred to a debate several Member States are already working to reopen.
In This New Geopolitical Reality, Europe Needs a Coherent Digital Deterrence Strategy
Europe’s digital resilience is weakened by the Union’s inability to deter the very digital security threats it seeks to resist.
The EU Should Look to Singapore and New Zealand on How to Secure Supply in a Crisis
A shortage turns trade policy into a sovereignty test: who keeps exporting when the goods become scarce?
The EU Cannot Win Its Eastern Neighbourhood Through Normative Power Alone
The EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood is being contested by actors who move faster, ask less, and deliver sooner, yet its policy strategy remains calibrated to a less competitive environment.
Europe’s $750 Billion Promise to Buy US Energy That Nobody Needs
The EU has pledged $750 billion in US energy purchases at the exact moment its own gas demand is beginning to fall. Priced to satisfy trade negotiators rather than actual demand, the commitment risks locking Europe into fresh import dependency just as its own consumption starts to shrink.
Why Transport Connectivity Can Accelerate the Credibility of EU Enlargement
How functional integration and corridor-wide network development can reinforce EU Accession in the Western Balkans, Ukraine and Moldova.
Europe’s Opening in Africa’s Finance Race with China Lies in Local Value Creation
As Europe and China converge on de-risking private capital in development finance, the real contest is shifting from mobilising finance to turning it into value-chain offers built around African priorities.
Addressing the Growing Threat of Crypto-Asset Circumvention to EU Sanctions
Sanction circumvention is an adaptation game, and crypto has dealt Russia a new hand. To prevent the erosion of sanctions effectiveness, the EU must adapt to new evasion practices and tools to better target entry points into the formal economy.
Europe’s Strategic Dependencies (ESP Series 1)
The post-Cold War order is over. In this inaugural series, the European Strategic Policy Unit maps ten of Europe’s most critical strategic dependencies across energy, defence, digital infrastructure, trade, and space.
