L’ennesima occasione persa? Tecnocrazia europea e geopolitica dell’expertise

Abstract

The fight against SARS-CoV-2 represents a large-scale and unprecedented opportunity for political leaders and policy-makers to confront science and technical expertise. In terms of a possible geopolitics of expertise, it is undeniable that the soft power of populist-led countries, such as Brazil, India, or the United States under Trump, has received major setbacks precisely for taking incomprehensible decisions without regard to expert opinion. Our argument is that those who manage to more effectively manage the exit phase from the pandemic crisis and initiate a truly significant recovery (not only economic) will gain considerable credit in the eyes of the international community. Within this framework, the institutions of the European Union have an opportunity for their revitalisation that is only partially mortgaged: important margins remain to fully exploit, and in a novel way, its eccentric institutional conformation.