Objectives

The cur­rent peri­od can be char­ac­terised by at least two major trends that are like­ly to gen­er­ate pro­found and long-last­ing struc­tur­al trans­for­ma­tions in economies and soci­eties world­wide: a major upheaval of the geopo­lit­i­cal order and an accel­er­at­ing eco­log­i­cal cri­sis that increas­ing­ly affects pop­u­la­tions across the globe and rais­es fun­da­men­tal ques­tions about sus­tain­abil­i­ty, resilience, and, ulti­mate­ly, the long-term hab­it­abil­i­ty of the planet.

Geopo­lit­i­cal ten­sions have inten­si­fied fol­low­ing major shifts, char­ac­terised by a frag­men­ta­tion of the glob­al econ­o­my with sig­nif­i­cant con­se­quences for pros­per­i­ty, sta­bil­i­ty and coop­er­a­tion. What is at stake is in par­tic­u­lar the abil­i­ty for each region to regain “open strate­gic auton­o­my”, i.e. the abil­i­ty to make their own choic­es in a resilient way while remain­ing open and coop­er­a­tive. With­in this per­spec­tive, the world will have to face sev­er­al major and inter­twined risks:

• risks affect­ing pro­duc­tion sys­tems, inter­na­tion­al trade and glob­al sup­ply and val­ue chains;
• risks of macro­eco­nom­ic insta­bil­i­ty and “weapon­i­sa­tion” of mon­ey and finance in a world marked by his­tor­i­cal­ly high lev­els of pub­lic and pri­vate indebt­ed­ness, at a time when the glob­al econ­o­my needs mas­sive invest­ment to address devel­op­ment, cli­mate, and social challenges;
• risks affect­ing labour mar­kets and social pro­tec­tion sys­tems as a con­se­quence of tech­no­log­i­cal devel­op­ment with poten­tial dis­putes for access to raw mate­ri­als, tech­nol­o­gy, cap­i­tal, trained labour and mar­kets, and con­se­quence for the eco­log­i­cal crises.

How­ev­er, these risks can­not be addressed by the EU alone. They require sus­tained coop­er­a­tion with part­ners across all regions of the world, not only to secure access to crit­i­cal resources, tech­nolo­gies and mar­kets, but also to build the foun­da­tions of glob­al sta­bil­i­ty and a fair­er mul­ti­lat­er­al gov­er­nance. In this con­text, address­ing these chal­lenges requires the design and imple­men­ta­tion of poli­cies that active­ly engage all con­ti­nents – in par­tic­u­lar the Glob­al South – around a shared and mutu­al­ly defined agen­da with the EU.

The accel­er­at­ing eco­log­i­cal cri­sis, in par­tic­u­lar through effects of cli­mate change and bio­di­ver­si­ty loss­es, rep­re­sents an exis­ten­tial chal­lenge thus call­ing for sus­tained effort for an eco­log­i­cal tran­si­tion. Despite the sci­en­tif­ic con­sen­sus, the cur­rent geopo­lit­i­cal sce­nario cre­ates impor­tant chal­lenges. In this con­text, fos­ter­ing a “green diplo­ma­cy” in order is cru­cial to achieve a “glob­al sus­tain­abil­i­ty”, which means togeth­er: (i) a sus­tain­able pros­per­i­ty that address­es the eco­nom­ic, eco­log­i­cal, and social needs of the present gen­er­a­tion while ensur­ing that future gen­er­a­tions can meet their own needs; (ii) a col­lec­tive engage­ment of both the Glob­al North and South, work­ing togeth­er for the ben­e­fit of all. But achiev­ing sus­tain­able pros­per­i­ty requires sus­tained coop­er­a­tion and mean­ing­ful dia­logue between the Glob­al North and the Glob­al South.

The “Eco­nom­ic poli­cies for new glob­al coopera­tion and alliances” (GLOBAL COOP) pro­gramme aims to address those chal­lenges. In par­tic­u­lar, it aims to train a com­mu­ni­ty of eco­nom­ic experts capa­ble of work­ing across dis­ci­plines and sec­tors, and of engag­ing with pub­lic author­i­ties, mul­ti­lat­er­al insti­tu­tions, inter­na­tion­al organ­i­sa­tions, civ­il soci­ety, and eco­nom­ic actors in diverse polit­i­cal, social, and region­al con­texts. Grad­u­ates will be able to fos­ter and medi­ate dia­logue across regions, bridge the North-South divide, and design, imple­ment, and eval­u­ate eco­nom­ic poli­cies that con­tribute to sta­bil­i­ty, social inclu­sion, and a sus­tain­able prosperity. 

The unique­ness of GLOBAL COOP there­fore lies in its inno­v­a­tive approach to address­ing the major eco­nom­ic chal­lenges asso­ci­at­ed with new forms of glob­al coop­er­a­tion and alliances, by train­ing experts from around the world to inte­grate both Glob­al North and Glob­al South per­spec­tives into pol­i­cy design, and by ensur­ing the active engage­ment of each stu­dent across at least three con­ti­nents, two of which are locat­ed in the Glob­al South. The pro­gramme aims to fos­ter an enhanced dia­logue between regions, focus­ing on the holis­tic and sys­temic changes need­ed to devel­op these new coop­er­a­tions and alliances while achiev­ing a sus­tain­able pros­per­i­ty in each of these spe­cif­ic region­al contexts.