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Towards Geoeconomics 2.0: Economic Security Beyond State-Centrism

Seminar · 01.06.2023 09:30 - 12:30

on Thursday 1 June 2023 at 9:30 – 12:30 EEST / 8:30 – 11:30 CEST

Following Russia’s war against Ukraine, geoeconomics as a strategic practice and analytical framework has reached a tipping point. These strategies are no longer confined to great-power politics. Non-state actors such as industrial, financial and technological firms are now resorting to ‘corporate geoeconomics’. State-business relations are being revamped to strengthen economic resilience and security. The current developments are paving the way for a new generation of geoeconomic practice and theory. This seminar explores these themes by discussing the future of geoeconomics and by presenting the findings of recent research.

Programme:

Session I: Roundtable on the future of geoeconomics

Speakers:
Tobias Gehrke, Senior Policy Fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations
Ashley Thomas Lenihan, Professor and Deputy Director, Georgetown University
Jens Hillebrand Pohl, Research Scientist, Tampere University
Mikael Wigell, Research Director, FIIA

Chair:
Cordelia Buchanan Ponczek, Visiting Scholar, FIIA

10:30-11:00 Coffee break

Session II: Book launch of The Political Economy of Geoeconomics: Europe in a Changing World

Speakers:
Milan Babić, Assistant Professor, Roskilde University
Adam D. Dixon, Adam Smith Chair, Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University
Imogen T. Liu, Assistant Professor, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Mikael Wigell, Research Director, FIIA

Discussant:
Ashley Thomas Lenihan, Professor and Deputy Director, Georgetown University

Chair:
Jens Hillebrand Pohl, Research Scientist, Tampere University

Speakers

Speakers: Session I

Tobias Gehrke

Senior Policy Fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations

Tobias Gehrke is a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council for Foreign Relations where he leads ECFR’s work on geoeconomics. He earned his PhD from Ghent University with a manuscript titled ‘Geoeconomics: how great power competition is reshaping the global economy’. Before joining ECFR, he was a research fellow with the Egmont Royal Institute in Brussels and was a visiting fellow at the National University of Singapore, Nottingham University, and the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington D.C.

Ashley Thomas Lenihan

Professor and Deputy Director, Georgetown University

Ashley Thomas Lenihan is a Professor of the Practice of International Affairs and Deputy Director of the MSFS Program at Georgetown University. She is an expert on economic statecraft, foreign investment, and national security, and author of Balancing Power without Weapons. She regularly provides testimony to the U.K. Parliament and consults for public and private sector bodies internationally. Ashley is also a Senior Policy Advisor at the British Academy of Management (BAM), a non-resident Fellow at the Centre for International Studies at the London School of Economics (LSE), and an Associate at the foreign policy think tank LSE IDEAS. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an individual member of the U.K.’s Parliamentary & Scientific Committee.

Jens Hillebrand Pohl

Research Scientist, Tampere University

Jens Hillebrand Pohl writes and lectures at the intersection of international economic law and politics. Jens is a Research Fellow of the Institute for Globalization and International Regulation (IGIR) at Maastricht University and pursues a Ph.D. in political science at Tampere University on ‘lawfare’ and the (mis)use of the legal system as an instrument of geostrategic power. An experienced attorney having practiced before U.S. federal and state courts in New York and for EU institutions, Jens researches the (geo)politicization of the legal order. He holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School and a MSc in Economics and Business from the Stockholm School of Economics.

Mikael Wigell

Research Director, FIIA

Mikael Wigell is Research Director at FIIA and a renowned international pioneer in geoeconomic and hybrid threats analytics. He has led large research projects on economic security and resilience, including the International Business Risk and Resilience Monitor-project funded by the European Commission, as well as the Nordic Security of Supply in an Age of Disruption-project funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers. He frequently publishes in top-ranked academic journals and is currently curating the World Economic Forum's Geoeconomics section. He earned his PhD at the London School of Economics, and he has been a Visiting Fellow at the Changing Character of War Centre, Oxford University. He is editor (together with Mika Aaltola and Sören Scholvin) of Geo-Economics and Power Politics in the 21st Century (Routledge, 2018; 2020).

Chair

Cordelia Buchanan Ponczek

Visiting Scholar, FIIA

Cordelia Buchanan Ponczek is a Visiting Scholar at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs and a Clarendon Scholar at the University of Oxford, where she is researching exchange relations among stakeholders in public-private investment projects. She was previously a Visiting Scholar at the United States Institute of Peace and a Transatlantic Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis and the Polish Institute of International Affairs, where she covered transatlantic relations, including NATO cooperation and trade relations.

Speakers: Session II

Milan Babić

Assistant Professor, Roskilde University

Milan Babić is an Assistant Professor in Global Political Economy at the Department of Social Sciences and Business at Roskilde University and PI of the DECARB project. His work deals with the transformations of the global political economy in the transition from a neoliberal towards a post-neoliberal global order. His latest book is The Rise of State Capital (Agenda 2023).

Adam D. Dixon

Adam Smith Chair, Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University

Adam D. Dixon holds the Adam Smith Chair in Sustainable Capitalism at Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University. He leads research on sustainable capitalism at Panmure House, the last and final home of moral philosopher and economist Adam Smith, focusing inter alia on the role of the global finance industry, the role of the state, and the role of corporations. He holds a D.Phil. in economic geography from the University of Oxford.

Imogen T. Liu

Assistant Professor, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Imogen T. Liu is an Assistant Professor of International Political Economy at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her research is animated by questions surrounding China's role in global political economic change and covers topics including state capital, financialization, geoeconomics, infrastructure development and US-China rivalry. Her work has been published in Development and Change, Journal of Economic Geography and Contemporary Politics.