TECH RIVALRY AND THE GLOBAL POWER REORDERING
Geopolitics, Governance, and the Political Economy of Technological Transformation
Workshop at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, January 28-29, 2026
Global politics is increasingly structured around the competition for tech leadership, centered on artificial intelligence advances and semiconductor supply chains but also enveloping other “strategic” industries such as green tech, biotech, quantum, infrastructure, and more. This “tech war” with the US-China rivalry at its center is transforming how power is accumulated, how violence and coercion are produced and how interdependence is governed.
The workshop brings together three research groups whose complementary perspectives illuminate different layers, dynamics, and actors of this transformation. From a macro-structural perspective, competition over frontier technologies is intensifying geopolitical tensions and redefining power capabilities (and vulnerabilities). At the same time, high-tech and in particular artificial intelligence-driven platforms and data infrastructures reshape military decision-making, redefine corporate-government and private-military relations and produce new forms of violence embedded in sociotechnical routines. These developments unfold against a broader reconfiguration of globalization, marked by techno-nationalism and shifting interdependencies.
By integrating geopolitical, sociotechnical and political-economic analyses, the workshop examines high-tech competition as an evolving process that reorders global hierarchies, restructures markets and securitizes and redefines state–industry relations. Through interdisciplinary dialogue, the workshop aims to identify conceptual bridges, empirical synergies and future research avenues to advance a more integrated understanding of the role of advanced technology in contemporary world order.
Themes:
- Geopolitical Competition and the Infrastructures of Tech War
- Techno-Nationalism and the Global Politics of Decoupling
- Platformization of Military Power
- Markets, Firms and the Political Economy of Securitizing Tech
- Algorithmic and Data Violence in Contemporary Conflict
- Regulating AI as Sociotechnical Practice
FORMATS AND ROLES
This workshop is intended to provide space for presenting work-in-progress and open discussions in an interdisciplinary setting. Each presenter will be given a 40-minute time slot, whereby the presentation should not exceed 10 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of discussion led by two discussants per presentation and 15 minutes of open Q&A. If you would like to attend the workshop as an external guest, please register by sending an email to laszlo.steinwaerder@uantwerpen.be.
PROGRAM
Wednesday 28 January 2026
12.15-13.15 Lunch
13.15-14.15 Introduction and roundtable of the principal investigators of the three organizing projects Nana de Graaff (ReGlobe project, Professor at VU Amsterdam), Marijn Hoijtink (Platform Wars project, Associate Professor at University of Antwerp) and Antonio Calcara (CODE project, Professor at Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
14.15-14.30 Break
14.30-15.10 Cloud Procurement and Responsibility in Defense Innovation (Antonio Calcara, Professor at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Mahmoud Javadi, PhD Researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Discussant: Nana de Graaff & Laszlo Steinwärder
15.10-15.50 The New Regulatory Landscape: Investment Screening, Sanctions, and Export Controls (Floor Doppen, PhD Researcher at University of Antwerpen)
Discussants: Antonio Calcara & Adam Tyler
15.50-16.30 The Platform Political Economy of Defense Tech (Jasper van der Kist, Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Antwerp)
Discussants: Jasa Veselinovic & Riccardo Bosticco
16.30-17.00 Coffee break
17.00-17.40 Compete at Cooperation? The Determinants and Dynamics of US and Chinese Space Partnerships (Thi Phuong Thao Pham, PhD Researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Discussants: Marijn Hoijtink & Eric Zhang
17.40-18.20 The Missing Strategy? Europe’s Industrial Policy in the Age of Weaponized Interdependence and Technological Change (Riccardo Bosticco, PhD Researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Discussants: Marijn Hoijtink & Floor Doppen
18.20-19.00 Biotech, the EU’s Geoeconomic Turn, and the US-China Rivalry (Jasa Veselinovic, Postdoctoral Researcher at VU Amsterdam)
Discussants: Jasper van der Kist & Thi Phuong Thao Pham
19.45 Workshop dinner
Thursday 29 January 2026
09.00-09.40 The Military-Oriented Tech Sector and the Remaking of the Pentagon Acquisition System (Laszlo Steinwärder, PhD Researcher at University of Antwerp)
Discussants: Julia Rone & Mahmoud Javadi
09.40-10.20 Imagining Europe’s Chip Future: Elite Contestation in EU Semiconductor Policy-Making (Adam Tyler, PhD Researcher at VU Amsterdam)
Discussants: Antonio Calcara & Laszlo Steinwärder
10.20-11.00 EU Clouds: Corporate Lobbying and (Lost) Opportunities for Democratic Digital Sovereignty in the EU (Julia Rone, Assistant Professor at VU Amsterdam)
Discussants: Jasper van der Kist & Leevi Saari
11.00-11.30 Coffee Break
11.30-12.10 Standardisation as a tool for industrial policy: evidence from Chinese domestic standards on 5G (Eric Zhang, PhD Researcher at Critical InfraLab)
Discussants: Jasa Veselinovic & Fer Avar (University of Antwerp)
12.10-12.50 Corporate Chameleons in a Double Bind – Mechanisms of Corporate Agency in Times of Weaponized Interdependence (Leevi Saari, PhD Researcher University of Amsterdam)
Discussants: Julia Rone & Fer Avar
13.00 Wrap up lunch
ORGANIZERS
This workshop is co-organized by the following projects:
The ‘ReGlobe Research Group - The Geopolitics of Europe-China Technological Decoupling’ is financed by a Vidi grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO, VI.Vidi.221R.038) and led by the principal investigator prof dr Naná de Graaff.
The ‘PLATFORM WARS’ project is funded under the Odysseus program of the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Vlaanderen (FWO, grant agreement no OZ9884).
The project ‘Competition in the Digital Era (CODE): Geopolitics and Technology in the 21st Century’ is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No. 101116328).
