Innovation policy and international relations: directions for EU diplomacy

Jos Leijten

doi:10.1186/s40309-019-0156-1

Abstract

This paper explores how innovation becomes an increasingly important topic in international relations, with a deep impact on collaboration as well as on competition between countries. It analyses how certain key patterns of techno-economic change lead to changes in the global distribution of innovative activities around the world and how this affects the institutions for global governance. It outlines three near-future scenarios of the international politics of innovation. The first, called “populism and protectionism”, describes an international environment which is dominated by populist and nationalist tendencies. The second outlines the approach of “innovation as a global public good”, in which everybody benefits, and global collaboration is the dominant model. The third scenario combines a few innovation forces in society, which can be captured as “bottom-up innovation”. These scenarios are then brought together in a single framework in which international dimensions of innovation policies that relate to a specific scenario can be mapped. In a next step, the potential consequences for international relations and innovation diplomacy are presented. The final paragraph discusses what Europe can and should do in its external relations to provide adequate answers to the forces outlined in the three scenarios. It results in a vision, which is based on the combination of four policy directions. Together, these offer a framework for aligning the different stakeholders, at the local, regional, national and European level.

Highlights

The second half of the twentieth century was a period of steadily growing globalization of firms and economies
This paper focuses on how foreign policies and diplomatic actions influence innovation and how innovation policy becomes part of foreign policies and diplomacy
The third scenario builds on a diverse set of strong societal and technological tendencies, which share the characteristic that they develop relatively independent of national research, technology and innovation policies

Summary

Introduction

The second half of the twentieth century was a period of steadily growing globalization of firms and economies. The third scenario builds on a diverse set of strong societal and technological tendencies, which share the characteristic that they develop relatively independent of national research, technology and innovation policies This scenario is driven by the strength of networking externalities and the resulting push for globalization in many of the new technologies of today and the foreseeable future. Scenario 2: innovation as global public good The second scenario can be read as a continuation of the strong internationalization forces of the recent past in which innovation and growth are there for the benefit of all It foresees a global level playing field for scientific and technological cooperation and competition, driven by a strong political desire to solve global problems (e.g. as laid down in the UN Sustainable Development Goals) and by increasingly globalized markets.

Entrepreneurial discovery

Findings

Market formation