Sustainable collaboration: security imaginaries of the EU

This project explores the evolving role of the European Union as a security actor and the conditions under which it can be considered a security union. It examines the legitimacy of the European Commission in exercising authority over security-related domains, including economic security, critical infrastructure, and competition policy for strategic purposes. The research addresses how trade measures and funding mechanisms serve dual purposes in countering hybrid threats, while analyzing the EU’s mandate to combat misinformation and disinformation.

We want to be sciping the interplay between internal and external security dimensions, the temporal aspects of securing the present and future, and the EU’s absent presence in military security. It considers narratives that grant agency to EU institutions, the governance of collective securitization, and the framing of mutual defense within the EU’s peace-oriented identity. Ultimately, the project seeks to understand how legitimacy is constructed through economic and security measures, and how these actions shape the EU’s power to influence security governance.