Edited by Nicholas Sowels, Jan Wouters, Michał Dulak and Maria C. Lattore, this e-book brings together a wide range of contributions to address the complex internal and external challenges of illiberalism to the EU.
The European Union (EU) has in many ways been the most thorough creation of the international liberal order, and its upending – especially by the EU's historical ally the US – poses a multi-dimensional challenge to the Union. The immediate security and trade threats are obvious enough. But more challenging still are the rise of nationalism and great power geopolitics, historical forces which the whole European project has been designed to overcome. Moreover, the rise of illiberalism across the globe also profoundly threatens international cooperation in absolutely vital areas like climate change and biodiversity, as well as more on prosaic issues like finance and artificial intelligence. This e-book is the follow-up publication to an online conference organised by the Global Governance Research Group of the UNA Europa university alliance, which took place in June 2025. It brings together a wide range of contributions which seek to address the complex internal and external challenges of illiberalism to the EU, along with the Union's capacities and failures in dealing with these.
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Contents
Introduction: The European Union in an Illiberal World, by Nicholas Sowels, Jan Wouters, Michał Dulak and Maria C. Latorre
Part 1: International Cooperation and the Changing International Order
1 Can the European Union Save the International Legal Order?, by Jan Wouters
2 The European Union and the erosion of liberal peace: navigating peace efforts in an illiberal world, by Elena Conde
3 Hybrid Governance Beyond the Liberal-Illiberal Dichotomy: EU–BRICS in Global Power Shifts, Francesco Petrone
4 Deciphering Contestation of the Liberal International Order, by Jing-Syuan Wong
5 Resurrection, Reckoning, Reasoning and the Rise of the EU and India in the New Geo-Political Setting, by Shreya Pandey and Dhiraj Mani Pathak
Part 2: Economic Challenges and Opportunities in a Turbulent World
6 The EU’s Open Strategic Autonomy and the challenge of competitiveness in the era of geo-politicized interdependence, Eugenia Baroncelli
7 Industrial Policy in the Global Climate-Trade Nexus, by Qingxiu Bu
8 Reviving Trade Alliances: The Geopolitical and Economic Significance of the EU-Mercosur Agreement, by Maria C. Latorre and David Suárez-Cuesta
9 The Promotion of the Green Agenda in the Trump Era: Perspectives on Europe’s Role in Agenda Setting with Brazil, by Ana Paula Tostes and Yasmin Renne
10 The Economic Challenges to the European Union of “Trumpism”, by Nicholas Sowels
Part 3: The European Union and the Challenge of Upholding Human Rights
11 The European Union's Challenges in Human Rights Promotion in an Illiberal World, by Hanna Tuominen
12 Upholding the rights of refugees: can the EU align security with its core values?, by Nuria Hernández-García
13 Designed to fail: EU Foreign Policy vis-à-vis Israel’s encroachment on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, by Bruno Jäntti
Part 4: Political Challenges within the European Union
14 Trustbreakers: How Political Discrimination Shapes Trust in Public Institutions in the European Union, by Ana María Montoya, Natalia Rodríguez, Santiago Pardo and Carlos Toruño
15 The European Union in the Face of Conspiracy Theories as Hybrid Threats, by Carlos González-Tormo
16 A new era for the global information sphere: Fostering information integrity or drilling information voids? by Naja Bentzen
17 Assessing the EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation: Platform Responses to Information Disorders, by Madalina Botan and Minna Aslama Horowitz
18 Domestic Illiberal Challengers within the European Parliament: the Case of EU-China Relations, by Unai Gómez-Hernández