Can the European Union (EU) strive for Strategic Autonomy in an age of intensifying Sino-American competition? This Special Issue published with the Journal of European Integration (JEI) in volume 45, issue 6, and guest edited by Prof. Dr. Luis Simón and Prof. Dr. Daniel Fiott, addresses this overarching question by: 1) unpacking the concept of strategic autonomy; 2) examining how the United States (US) and China exercise influence over European decision-making; 3) analysing how the EU’s internal architecture provides both challenges and opportunities to withstand external influence; and 4) assessing how these dynamics play out in different policy areas and contexts.

The intensifying rivalry between the US and China has become the defining feature of great power politics in the early 21^st century. As the US and China deploy “wedge strategies” to bring different countries and regions on side or deny them to the other side, the question of how to grapple with the intensifying US-China competition has become central for virtually any actor and region in the international system. Because of its economic, technological and diplomatic heft, Europe is an important playground in US-China competition, but it also strives to preserve a significant degree of autonomy from those same great powers. The US and China both understand that Europe’s actions can affect their relative positions in the international system. They have thus combined inducements and coercion to influence European policies on questions ranging from Huawei’s 5G digital infrastructure, sensitive technology transfers, global supply chains, investment restrictions and naval deployments in the Indo-Pacific.

Against this backdrop of intensifying US-China competition, the EU and its member states have sought to pursue greater “strategic autonomy”, while rejecting the notion of equidistance between Washington and Beijing. Concretely, powerful intra-European actors conjugate inducements and coercion to repel external wedging efforts and bind Europeans together around common policies.

This JEI Special Issue seeks to innovate in theoretical and conceptual terms by analysing various aspects of EU policy from the perspectives of “wedging” and “binding”. In this respect, the articles not only attempt to shed new conceptual light on the practice of European strategic autonomy, but also provide new empirical insights into how US and Chinese strategies of wedging and binding affect EU decision-making. Accordingly, the aim is not only to theoretically flesh out the often ill-defined concept of strategic autonomy, but also to stimulate further research engagement.

The special issue is divided into four theoretical and empirical sections. First, the special issue focuses on “theory, concepts and visions”, where it sets the theoretical scene and defines and unpacks the key theoretical underpinnings of the special issue. Second, the special issue looks at the “mechanics of influence” with a specific focus on how Chinese and US influence in Europe functions. Third, in the section title “thematic and empirical investigations”, the special issue develops the theoretical investigation further through three empirical cases. The special issue ends with a concluding article that discusses how the various articles feed into broader IR scholarly debates on wedging, binding and great power competition, and outlines avenues for further research.

The articles in this Special Issue of the Journal of European Integration form part of the deliverables of a European Research Council (ERC) consolidator grant awarded to Prof. Dr. Luis Simón for a research project entitled: Sino-American Competition and European Strategic Autonomy (SINATRA).

Articles

“Player and Playground: Europe in US-China Competition”, by Luis Simón and Daniel Fiott (CSDS, Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

“Divided We Stand? Examining the European Union’s Ability to Withstand External Wedging”, by Marianna Lovato (Jagiellonian University) and Luis Simón (CSDS, Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

“The Three Images of EU Strategic Autonomy: Perspectives on Wedging, Binding and Hedging”, by Daniel Fiott (CSDS, Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

“European Strategic Autonomy as a Double-Edged Sword? US Perspectives in an Era of Sino-American Competition”, by Linde Desmaele (Leiden University)

“Cautious Optimism: Unravelling Chinese Views on European Strategic Autonomy”, by Hongsong Liu and Ruolin Su (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

“The Unbalanced Transatlantic Relationship: Understanding US Influence in Europe”, by Federico Steinberg and Jeffrey Anderson (Georgetown University)

“Understanding Chinese Influence in Europe: An Institutional (A)symmetry Approach”, by Andreea Budeanu (CSDS, Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and Shaun Breslin (University of Warwick)

“Between Scylla and Charybdis: Navigating EU Strategic Autonomy Amid the US-China Trade War”, by Kristen Hopewell (University of British Columbia)

“The Technological Underpinnings of European Autonomy and US-China Competition”, by Antonio Calcara (CSDS, Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Joris Teer (EU Institute for Security Studies) and Ivan Zaccagnini (LUISS University)

“The European Union’s Strategic Autonomy in Foreign Policy: European Responses to American and Chinese Influence Over the Arms Embargo on China and Taiwan”, by Giulia Tercovich (CSDS, Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and Hugo Meijer (Sciences Po Paris)

“Wedging, Binding and Europe in the US-China Competition: Theoretical and Policy Implications”, by Yasuhiro Izumikawa (Aoyama Gakuin University)

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CSDS engaged with senior policymakers, as well as experts from the academic and think tank communities in the US, to assess the potential implications of the new Trump administration on US-China strategic competition and its ripple effects on Europe. These exchanges provided a valuable forum to discuss shifting transatlantic dynamics, economic security and geopolitical realignments in an era of great power rivalry.

In Washington, D.C., CSDS organised an exchange with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, which included a public conference on “Transatlantic Perspectives on U.S.-China Geoeconomic Competition”, as well as a closed door session. Additionally, the team engaged in two separate workshops with the Asia Society with the BMW Center for German and European Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service to discuss, respectively, transatlantic approaches to China and the future of the transatlantic relationship.

On Friday, the CSDS team were in Los Angeles to share their research during the “Europe, China, and America under Trump 2.0” Symposium organised by the University of Southern California (USC). This allowed CSDS to provide insights into the potential transatlantic and global implications of a second Trump administration. The visit concluded on Monday at UC Berkeley, where CSDS presented its latest research on Europe’s role in US-China competition, transatlantic technology cooperation and economic security.

The visit took place in the context of CSDS’ ongoing work on “Europe in US-China Rivalry” and “Geopolitics and Technology”. The visit was funded by the European Union through European Research Council grants on Sino-American Competition and European Strategic Autonomy (SINATRA), under grant number 101045227, and Competition in the Digital Era: Geopolitics and Technology in the 21st Century (CODE), under grant number 101116328.

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