Rebuilding the Fortress? Europe in a changing world economy

Lavery, S. (2023) Rebuilding the Fortress? Europe in a changing world economy. Review of International Political Economy, (doi: 10.1080/09692290.2023.2211281) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

Two rival visions of Europe’s place in the world economy competed for primacy throughout the post-war era. The idea of an ‘Atlantic Europe’ promoted close economic ties to the United States and integration into the liberal international order. An alternative ‘Fortress Europe’ vision aimed to carve out a sphere of relative European autonomy backed by trade barriers and industrial protectionism. While many argued that the ‘Fortress Europe’ vision was defeated during the globalization of the 1990s and 2000s, concepts such as economic sovereignty, industrial strategy and ‘strategic autonomy’ have returned to EU circles. Is a rebuilding of ‘Fortress Europe’ taking place in this context? This paper argues that the old tension between ‘Atlantic’ and ‘Fortress’ Europe is re-emerging but in a new form and under a new set of international conditions. A ‘selective fortification’ of European industrial strategy and trade policy is emerging, as EU policymakers develop targeted instruments and institutional capacities that aim to insulate European firms from new patterns of international competition. The selective refortification of European capitalism has implications for debates within IPE on the future of liberal international order, new patterns of competitive regionalization, and the restructuring of the relation between the state and global capitalism.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the Leverhulme Trust’s Early Career Fellowship. Grant number: ECF-2017-281.
• Keywords: European Union, industrial strategy, trade policy, state capitalism, global order
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Lavery, Dr Scott
• Authors: Lavery, S.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Politics
• Journal Name: Review of International Political Economy
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• ISSN: 0969-2290
• ISSN (Online): 1466-4526
• Published Online: 15 May 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Author
• First Published: First published in Review of International Political Economy 2023
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License