Europäische Wirtschaftspolitik in der geopolitischen Ära: Eine geoökonomische Wende?

The European Union (EU) as a key actor in international economic and trade policy is facing new challenges in the era of geopolitics. Acknowledging this altered context, the article makes three contributions: First, it conceptualises what can be understood as a geoeconomic turn of the international economic order, and examines the extent to which policy measures adopted by the EU over the past years qualify as geoeconomic. Second, it discusses the role of business actors as supporters and opponents of reorienting economic policy based on the concept of business power. Third, it questions whether the EU, genuinely understood as a market and regulatory power, can become a geoeconomic power and what the implications of a geoeconomic turn would be for the EU as an international actor. The analysis shows that, since 2017, the EU has been increasingly pursuing a geoeconomic agenda partially supported by business actors, and that the EU has the potential to become a geoeconomic power.