Farrand, Carrapico & Turobov: The New Geopolitics of EU Cybersecurity

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers key concepts, legislative acts, and theoretical frameworks discussed in the 2024 study on the geopolitics of EU cybersecurity, focusing on the shift from economic efficiency to security-based regulation.

Geopolitical Union

A term used by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to describe the EU's response to an increasingly multipolar, combative, and unstable world through shifting law and policy-making.

Strategic Autonomy

The policy goal of reducing dependencies in critical industries, intentionally framed in terms of geopolitical and state security rather than just liberalized trade.

Digital Sovereignty

The integrity and resilience of data infrastructure and networks, facilitating the development of internal capacities to reduce dependency on other regions for crucial technologies.

Cyber

A comprehensive concept that includes infrastructure, such as computer systems and online networks, as well as the digital data within them.

Regulatory Mercantilism

A theoretical framework characterizing international actors' behavior where they merge economic and security goals to reassert control over sectors through regulatory interventions and domestic production.

Regulatory Capitalism

An approach to regulation historically driven by efficiency concerns and light-touch oversight by private actors, contrasted in the text with the newer shift toward security-driven regulation.

Economic Nationalism

A system where security and economy become inextricably linked, leading to trade policies prioritized on the basis of state protection rather than open interdependence.

Chips Act (2023)

Regulation $2023/1781$, which establishes a framework for strengthening Europe’s semiconductor ecosystem and ensuring security of supply.

Critical Raw Materials Act (2024)

Regulation $2024/1252$, designed to ensure a secure, resilient, and sustainable supply of materials like lithium and cobalt to support the green and digital transitions.

Common European Data Spaces

An ecosystem intended to ensure the EU's share of the data economy corresponds to its economic weight by 2030, fostering innovation under the highest cybersecurity standards.

Data Act

Regulation $2023/2854$, which introduces harmonized rules on fair access to data and measures to prevent third-country governmental access to non-personal data.

Cyber Solidarity Act

A regulatory proposal aimed at strengthening EU capacities to detect and respond to cyber threats, foregrounded by the perception of hybrid warfare and Russian military aggression.

European Cyber Shield

A pan-European infrastructure project proposed under the Cyber Solidarity Act to detect and prepare for cybersecurity incidents.

Cyber Resilience Act

A proposal for horizontal cybersecurity requirements for 'products with digital elements,' ensuring hardware and software are secure throughout their entire life-cycle.

ENISA

The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, tasked with overseeing market surveillance and enforcement under the Cyber Resilience Act.

Hybrid Warfare

A range of hostile operations combining cyber attacks with other actions like online disinformation campaigns to destabilize institutions.