Inside the European Union's Trade Machinery: Institutional Changes in an Age of Geoeconomics
研究了欧盟贸易总司如何通过制度分层和转换适应地缘经济转向，分析了官方文件和官员访谈，发现其地缘经济能力和思维在冯德莱恩领导下逐步增强。
Abstract In the context of increasingly assertive behaviour in international trade policy, various scholars seem to agree on the presence of a ‘geoeconomic turn’ in European Union (EU) trade policy. Whilst various aspects of this turn have been studied, the way in which the EU's trade institution might have adapted to this new context remains unclear. Therefore, this article addresses the following research question: how has the Directorate‐General for Trade (DG Trade) adapted to the geoeconomic turn in international trade policy? Using an innovative historical institutionalist framework and directed content analysis, the article analyses EU official documents and 14 interviews with EU officials. We find that, despite apparent continuity, under President von der Leyen, a gradual process of institutional adaptation through different forms of layering and conversion has taken place within DG Trade, increasing the EU's geoeconomic capacities and geoeconomic thinking inside the EU's trade machinery.