Schilde Receives EURYDICE Grant to Explore EU’s Role as a Global Security Actor
Professor Kaija Schilde recently received the EURYDICE (EURopean SecuritY and Defense: Industry, Capacity, and Evolution) grant, which builds on the momentum of the 2021–2024 Jean Monnet Chair in European Security and launches a three-year program of teaching, research, and public engagement focused on the European Union’s (EU) evolving role as a global security actor.
“Traditional models of state power, based on taxation and state ownership of arms, do not fully capture how contemporary states generate security,” said Schilde, whose research inquiry delves deeper into the EU being a security state in the 21st century. “Today, regulatory authority, market coordination, and infrastructural capacity are just as central to extracting and creating military power. The EU, often dismissed as a ‘soft power,’ is increasingly exercising these tools to shape defense markets, coordinate supply chains, and respond to geopolitical threats.”
EURYDICE of the Jean Monnet Module progresses European integration studies by developing new theoretical and practical frameworks for understanding the EU’s evolving role as a security entity. It supports EU policy-making by demonstrating how the EU’s market, legal, regulatory, and judicial mechanisms can leverage defense industrial supply chains and enhance strategic autonomy.
“This grant gives me the opportunity to connect theory, policy, and pedagogy in a way that reflects the complexity of contemporary security governance. It’s a chance to bring students, scholars, and practitioners into a conversation about how the EU and other modern polities respond to threats, build capacity, and shape the future of global security.” – Professor Kaija Schilde
The Module consists of three integrated activities:
- teaching a specialized course on “The EU as a 21st Century Security Actor/State,”
- conducting research for a book manuscript examining the EU’s security capabilities, and
- organizing an annual workshop series on EU Defense Capabilities and Strategic Autonomy.
Through these activities, the Module will reach students across disciplines, generate policy-relevant knowledge about contemporary security governance, and create dialogue between academic research and policy practitioners.
Kaija Schilde is the associate dean of studies and associate professor of international relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. She is also the Jean Monnet Chair in European Security and Defense at Boston University. Her research and teaching focus on the political economy of security, with a particular emphasis on defense industry politics and the political development of the European Union. As the Jean Monnet Chair, Schilde advances the Pardee School’s agenda of preparing students to meet the international challenges of the 21st century through a rigorous and sustained presentation of the EU as a global power with responsibilities over European security, international order, and global security. Learn more about Professor Schilde on her faculty profile.