Norm Transformation in EU Research Security: A Pragmatist Approach

• Published date: 01 March 2026
• Author: Håvard Rustad Markussen
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70033
• Section: Research Article

Contemporary European Politics

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Norm Transformation in EU Research Security:

A Pragmatist Approach

Håvard Rustad Markussen

NIFU—Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education, Oslo, Norway

Correspondence: Håvard Rustad Markussen (haavard.markussen@nifu.no)

Received: 9 July 2025 | Revised: 20 February 2026 | Accepted: 10 March 2026

Keywords: international research collaboration | norm transformation | pragmatism | research security

ABSTRACT

This article examines the recent development of a research security policy agenda in the EU. In responding to changes in the

geopolitical environment, the EU has adapted its research and innovation policy by subjecting it to security concerns. At stake

in this development is the norm of openness in international science, and more broadly, the status of the liberal values and

principles on which the EU rests. To examine this development, this article mobilises pragmatist norm transformation theory,

which, in brief, proposes that norms transform through the reorientation of conventions and the creative adaptation to

changing political circumstances. Through this theoretical lens, the article analyses key policy documents about research

security coming out of the EU from 2021 to 2024 and finds that the norm of openness in international research was transformed

through the negotiation of two main discursive tensions: open/safe science and national/global security. These tensions were

ultimately reconciled, moreover, as the EU framed international research cooperation as ‘open and safe’ and in need of

‘derisking, not decoupling’.

1 | Introduction

In May 2024, the European Council adopted a recommendation

on enhancing research security (Council of the European

Union 2024). The recommendation aims to specify how EU

member states should go about safeguarding research findings

and scientific innovations from malign foreign influence in a

time of increased geopolitical tension and competition, while

also maintaining an open, free, and collaborative international

research system. The adoption of the recommendation signals

the (preliminary) end to a years‐long process of establishing a

research security policy in the EU. In 2021, the European

Commission presented a Communication on the Global

Approach to Research and Innovation, where the impact of

geopolitical tensions and foreign interference on international

research practice was first properly and formally discussed

(European Commission 2021). Later, in 2023, the Commission

launched the European Economic Security Strategy, where

research security is placed in the context of the broader problem

of how to maintain an open economy in the face of heightened

demands for protectionist policy and a rapidly de‐globalising

world economy (European Commission 2023a).

The stakes of this development are high. The development of an

EU policy on research security can be seen as a crucial step in

the EU's efforts to adapt to the current geopolitical moment by

finding ways to effectively balance concerns for openness and

security. At the same time, subjecting research and innovation

to stricter security measures—which the EU encourages

member states to find ways of doing—may be seen to under-

mine liberal, internationalist values of openness and freedom,

which are foundational to the project of European integration,

and hence, to take part in propelling de‐globalisation and

driving international competition. In this way, the EU's

research security policy sheds light on, not only on the devel-

opment of an important policy area but also on how the Union

navigates contemporary world politics more broadly—a topic

which has been explored extensively in EU studies recently and

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any

medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

© 2026 The Author(s). Contemporary European Politics published by University Association of Contemporary European Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

1 of 10 Contemporary European Politics, 2026; 4:e70033

https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70033