ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the EU politics of governing dual-use research. Drawing on critical security studies, it asserts the need to understand the politics of dual-use as a specific problematisation of security and argues for studying its shifting meanings, practices and the effects thereof. The chapter situates the EU governance of dual-use items at the intersection of the changing interpretation of international security environment and the threat of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction on the one hand, and the controversies related to the rise of potentially dangerous research in life sciences on the other hand. It then provides a brief overview of the EU’s approach to identifying and dealing with dual-use research and highlights the novel security practices that have been introduced in the governance of European research projects. Finally, the chapter concludes with a discussion of the wider implications of this changing problematisation of dual-use for the politics of security expertise and some remarks on the politics of insecurity in the area of research and innovation governance.
