Technological innovation has become a critical element of international cooperation and geopolitical rivalry. This has impacted key areas of the transatlantic partnership, presenting both ...opportunities and challenges for EU–US relations, either rejuvenating a relationship mired in rifts or deepening those rifts. Instead of examining how these structural cracks have emerged and are growing, this article zooms in on the challenge to transatlantic relations posed by technological innovation, both as a driver of cooperation and a cause for further rivalry. In doing so, the article explores three interrelated elements: the transatlantic technology gap and the EU’s quest for technological sovereignty, approaches to technological innovation and the role of emerging and disruptive technologies, and the values-based governance of digital and technology issues. As fast-paced technological transformation continues to disrupt societies and economies on both sides of the Atlantic, technology should be at the heart of a revived phase in EU–US cooperation and trust.
This book examines the European governance of emerging security technologies.The emergence of technologies such as drones, autonomous robotics, artificial intelligence, cyber and biotechnologies has ...stimulated worldwide debates on their use, risks and benefits in both the civilian and the security-related fields. This volume examines the concept of ‘governance’ as an analytical framework and tool to investigate how new and emerging security technologies are governed in practice within the European Union (EU), emphasising the relational configurations among different state and non-state actors. With reference to European governance, it addresses the complex interplay of power relations, interests and framings surrounding the development of policies and strategies for the use of new security technologies. The work examines varied conceptual tools to shed light on the way diverse technologies are embedded in EU policy frameworks. Each contribution identifies actors involved in the governance of a specific technology sector, their multilevel institutional and corporate configurations, and the conflicting forces, values, ethical and legal concerns, as well as security imperatives and economic interests.This book will be of much interest to students of science and technology studies, security studies and EU policy.
Discourses around "strategic autonomy" and "sovereignty", traditionally used at the state level, have been recently circulated within the EU supranational context regarding the European defence ...technological and industrial base, dual-use and disruptive research and innovation, and advances in the tech and digital domains. This article explores whether a high-politics logic intrinsic to "strategic autonomy" and "sovereignty" has been transplanted at the EU-level to enhance the strategic priority of various lower-politics policy fields across tech and digital policy initiatives and instruments. This logic has the hegemonic effect of shaping collective thinking and opening windows of opportunity for EU policymaking, by mainstreaming a security imaginary into broader technological governance processes. The article examines the EU's scaled-up rhetoric around floating signifiers such as "strategic autonomy" and "technological sovereignty", as well as the diffusion of overlapping "sovereignty" agendas enacted transversely in the defence, tech and digital sectors. The argument is that their meaning is not yet fixed but articulated via hegemonic interventions across different interconnected policy fields. This makes for conceptual "travelling" and "stretching" with a potential impact on the future of European security integration, by creating of a more unified security imaginary of the EU as a strategically independent and technologically sovereign space.
FRONTEX has highlighted Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) as affordable and efficient capabilities for securing the EU's vast frontiers in order to further upgrade them into smart ...technological borders. In this regard, this article examines the EU's strategy and rationalisations to develop dual-use technologies such as aerial surveillance drones for border management. By drawing on critical security and technology studies and by focusing on their functional technological efficiency, the article argues that drones are being normalised in a technological regime of exclusion at the border-zone. It further contends that high-end technologies such as drones introduce a military bias as security enablers in border surveillance and as a panacea for the consequences of failed policies to manage irregular migration. A closer examination of several EU-endorsed drone projects reveals a pragmatic and industry-driven approach to border security, underlining the evolving homogenisation between internal and external security and the imminent "dronisation" of European borders.
This article examines the European Union (EU)'s recent impetus to enhance military capacity building by funding the research and development of new and emerging technologies such as dual-use drones. ...A proactive agenda can be identified at the EU level to invest in and bolster the creation of modular and high-end capabilities for security and defence. In this regard, the article argues that there is an undeniable technologization and militarization trend to capitalize on civil innovation in the case of competitive dual-use drone technologies. Nevertheless, there is a puzzling element in the fast promotion of watershed developments in the case of complex and increasingly automated weaponry and what the research identifies as the 'double-efficiency' framing of civil-military drones as both highly proficient and cost-effective capabilities. What drives the normalization of dual-use drones as preferential technologies for internal and external security purposes in the EU? By drawing on critical technology theory and security studies scholarship, the article explores the 'double-efficiency' framing of dual-use drones and the technological expertise behind discursive strategies reinforcing the importance of European defence cooperation in the drone sector.
While significant scholarly work has been dedicated to the institutionalization of the European External Action Service (EEAS) and its role in shaping the European Union’s (EU) foreign policy goals, ...less attention has been given to the Service’s wider competencies and agenda-setting power in the case of the Common Security and Defence Policy. This article aims to assess the growing role of the EEAS in defence and in spearheading new ways of bridging foreign policy and security in a comprehensive manner. In doing so, the research explores how the security and defence dimensions were incorporated into the EEAS, by examining the processes of institutionalization in the EEAS crisis management structures in the post-Lisbon context, and by zooming in on the intergovernmental and supranational dynamics in the European security and defence architecture. The article finds that continued organizational innovation and the reinforcement of supranational mechanisms in the EEAS and the European Commission have had a positive impact on the EU’s security and defence, representing a step further in bridging the foreign policy, security and defence divides at the EU level.
European Union, European External Action Service, European Security and Defence, High Representative
The coronavirus has prompted states to hastily embrace sophisticated yet questionable digital surveillance tools such as contact tracing apps, turning once again to technologies as political quick ...fixes and rapid policy responses to the crisis. Yet, such apps raise serious concerns related to widespread surveillance, the outsourcing of expertise and sensitive data to tech giants, and the infringement of citizens' rights. The article aims to explore the state-of-play with respect to deploying tracking apps at a large scale, including potential misuses, harmful effects, and function creep leading to radical forms of state-corporate techno-surveillance. Whereas tracking apps represent a critical experiment for the role technology will play in tackling future pandemics, scepticism should surround techno-solutionism when it comes to complex problems. Hyped, and sometimes ineffective, technological silver bullets mobilized during the coronavirus state of emergency should trigger the careful assessment of the trade-offs between democratic principles and technologically mediated emergency politics.
Emerging technologies are increasingly portrayed as having disruptive effects in security and defence, both in civilian and military environments. Yet, while revolutionary military technologies have ...always been connected to the notion of permanent techno-scientific innovation, there remains ample room for a critical enquiry on what it means to be disruptive in security and defence technology, the effects of claiming disruption and the broader socio-political contexts within which disruptive technology emerges. In this regard, the article draws theoretical insights from critical security studies, science and technology studies, and innovation studies, to propose a new analytical framework to study disruptive security and defence technologies along three analytical axes: temporality, performativity, and imagination. The notion of disruption implies a pre-existing linear, temporal dimension that is meant to be disrupted, and the mere claim of disruption is a performative act that can - although not always - trigger, enable or enact pre-imagined socio-technical futures. As the notion of disruption becomes prevalent in both civilian and military environments, the article contributes to unpacking its constitutive elements and to give it a more central position in contemporary IR debates.
Drones and artificial intelligence Csernatoni, Raluca; Lavallée, Chantal
Emerging Security Technologies and EU Governance,
2020, Letnik:
1
Book Chapter
Owing to their dual-use characteristics and innovative applications, emerging technologies such as unmanned aircrafts (drones) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have gained importance within various ...domains. The extensive commercialisation of drones has made them accessible to a wide range of users and applications. However, their uptake poses a series of concerns within the society about security, safety and privacy issues. The rapid development in recent years of AI equally raises important questions about its societal impact. Regarding both technological domains, the European Commission has taken a leadership role in elaborating policy frameworks, notably by shaping the EU’s regulatory as well as research and development priorities in line with a principled technological innovation model. Informed by insights from field theory and science and technology studies, the chapter examines how discourses, interests, perceptions and practices circulate and are enacted by relevant actors to shape these new EU policies. It argues that the Commission’s approach towards drone and AI sectors, in stimulating intensive and strategic consultations with and between key stakeholders, is engendering a ‘smart governance’. This has further consolidated a normative stand, positioning the EU as a legislative and ethical reference in a crucial moment where the socio-material practices and meanings surrounding these emerging technologies are not yet settled.
The extensive commercialisation of drones has made them accessible to a wide range of users and applications. However, their uptake poses a series of concerns within the society about security, safety and privacy issues. Informed by insights from field theory and science and technology studies, the chapter examines how discourses, interests, perceptions and practices circulate and are enacted by relevant actors to shape these new European Union (EU) policies. In this regard, this chapter argues that the European Commission’s approach towards drones and artificial intelligence policies, in stimulating intensive and strategic consultations with and between key stakeholders, is engendering a ‘smart governance’. The European Commission has taken a leadership role in elaborating European policy frameworks, shaping the EU’s regulation as well as research and development priorities in line with a principled technological innovation model.
Introduction Calcara, Antonio; Csernatoni, Raluca; Lavallée, Chantal
Emerging Security Technologies and EU Governance,
2020, Letnik:
1
Book Chapter
The Introduction first clarifies this new wave of technological innovation to explore the implications for human–machine relations, especially in the security sector, emphasising the characteristics ...of these emerging technologies and the main ethical and legal concerns, as well as their definitional challenges. Finally, it provides a comprehensive view of the distinctive European Union policy-making process and its impact on the governance of emerging security technologies. This confluence has important dual-use applications for both civilian and military objectives and contributes to the blurring division as well as mutual transfers between the civilian and military sectors. Technological advancements are also frequently accompanied by stark warnings from critics and technophobes alike, going as far as crediting them with science fiction and dystopic scenarios that will change the future of humanity.
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