Trade policy for an age of geopolitics and national security concerns
News
About trade
Published: 31 Aug 2021
As geopolitical tensions rise, policy makers ponder how trade policy can bolster national security. In a new report, the Swedish government agency National Board of Trade shows how trade and security policy are linked and discusses the merits of different trade policy options for the EU.
– International relations theory supports the view that, under most conditions, economic integration has a moderating influence on great power relations and a stabilising effect on security. Consequently, the EU should not abandon its grand strategy of strategically motivated economic integration, says the author of the report Per Altenberg.
– While genuine security threats sometimes require discrimination of foreign interests, for example via sanctions, it is important that security policy approaches are not casually transferred to trade policy.
Read the full interview and download the report: An EU trade policy for geopolitical ends – clashing perspectives and policy recommendations