The ‘Geopolitical Commission’: 40 Years in the Making?

Abstract In 2019, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised MEPs she would deliver a ‘Geopolitical Commission’ during the five years of her term in office, unbeknown that the COVID‐19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine were around the corner. High Representative Borrell heralded Europe's ‘geopolitical awakening’ through enhanced military co‐operation, increased defence spending and drawing on the European Union (EU) budget to arm Ukraine. These policies, and the rationale behind them that the EU must become a more transactional, interests‐driven actor in an increasingly conflictual international system, clash with an idea of Europe grounded in regional integration, peace and a rejection of power politics. Whilst exogenous shocks can explain institutional change, this article argues that endogenous factors are important. It asks to what extent was the establishment of the ‘Geopolitical Commission’ in 2019 made possible by transformative discourse within the European institutions? Drawing on discursive institutionalism and presenting original archival research from the EUR‐LEX database tracing the origins of geopolitical discourse through five EU institutions back to 1978, the article identifies nine frames consistently used in support of cognitive and normative arguments in the co‐ordinative discourse over the last 40 years, and how they were integrated into the presentation and justification for the Geopolitical Commission and its policy goals.