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The great game

Industrial policy and the rivalry of great powers, seen from competition law. 14 publications, from 2022 to 2025.

All 14 publications

Newest first

2025

  1. Understanding Digital Sovereignty in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

    William Lehr, Volker Stocker and Jason Whalley

    EU Digital Sovereignty has emerged as a key policy topic amid growing geopolitical tensions fuelled by an AI arms race in which corporate investment and government support appear mutually reinforcing.

  2. European Digital Sovereignty: From Naïveté to Sustainability?

    Valérie-Laure Bénabou

    Two decades of hyperactive EU digital rule-making have not delivered “digital sovereignty,” but instead exposed a strategic naïveté: Brussels built a Digital Single Market that turbocharged non-European cloud and platform…

  3. Revisiting Antitrust in the Age of Great-Powers Competition

    Jonathan M. Barnett

    US antitrust law has traditionally paid little attention to global competitiveness and industrial policy objectives. This reflects a commitment to enabling the free play of competitive forces to determine market outcomes and an…

  4. EU Digital Regulation as Industry Shaping Policy: The DSA, Brussels Effect, and Global Competitiveness

    Marie-Therese Sekwenz

    The European Union’s recent wave of digital regulations, especially the Digital Services Act (DSA), highlights a strategic use of law as an instrument of industrial policy and global digital influence.

  5. The Rise of Industrial Policy in Europe and the Search for Growth and Innovation: A Golden Opportunity for Competition Authorities

    Frédéric Jenny

    This paper argues that the unintended and unanticipated costs of globalization revealed during the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic have led to a renewed embrace of industrial policy.

  6. Antitrust and Great Powers Rivalry

    Daniel Crane

    “Great nations” rivalry includes all aspects of economic rivalry, so it is natural that the great nations consider antitrust a weapon in their arsenals, particularly in areas such as military, technology, culture, and finance.

  7. China and the Paradox of Protectionism?

    Richard N. Langlois

    The very idea of industrial policy implies that industrial capabilities, and thus comparative advantages, are malleable and can be deliberately created.

  8. Industrial Policy and Competitiveness: Non-Tariff Barriers and Incentives to Innovate

    Daniel F. Spulber

    Countries use non-tariff barriers (NTBs) as instruments of industrial policy. NTBs often are difficult to observe and hard to adjust because they are part of national regulations. NTBs are inflexible in comparison to tariffs.

  9. A Return of Industrial Policies? Only a Partial and Dystopic One

    Giovanni Dosi

    This article, an abridged version of much more detailed analyses in Dosi et al. (2025) and Dosi (2025), addresses three interrelated questions, namely: back to the basics, what are industrial policies?

  10. Special Issue: Industrial Policy and Competitiveness

    Thibault Schrepel and Dirk Auer

    Industrial policy is back in fashion. Governments in the United States, Europe, and China increasingly deploy subsidies, trade restrictions, and regulations to promote domestic champions and secure supply chains.

  11. Harnessing the transformative benefits of AI to maximize competition, innovation and competitiveness

    Nicholas Banasevic

    Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) has transformative economic potential across all sectors. This article explores how to harness AI’s potential while maintaining an open and competitive economy.

2023

  1. Deglobalisation and competition policy: the challenge to European economic integration

    Luc Soete and Sven Van Kerckhoven

    In March 2023, the European Commission (EC) announced it would relax its state aid rules so that its Member States would have more leeway to co-invest with private actors in projects that further the green transition and…

  2. The Expected Impact of “Great Power Competition” on Antitrust Policy

    Thibault Schrepel

    Yogi Berra once said, “[i]t’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” He also said, “[y]ou can observe a lot by watching.”

2022

  1. Is the West Giving Away the Game?

    Jonathan M. Barnett and David J. Teece

    Through a historically exceptional combination of political and economic freedom, liberal democracies have over the last century achieved an exceptional record of technological innovation.

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