The last Wednesday, 11 February 2026, the collective volume The European Union in an Illiberal World was published, featuring contributions from the members of the research group Jan Wouters, Nuria Hernández García, and Carlos González Tormo, and edited by Nicholas Sowels, Jan Wouters, Michał Dulak, and María C. Lattore. This work brings together a wide range of contributions to address the complex internal and external challenges that illiberalism poses to the European Union.
Link to the book “The European Union in an Illiberal World“: https://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/projects/gp-e-books/european-union-illiberal-world
“The European Union (EU) has in many ways been the most thorough creation of the international liberal order, and its upending, especially by the EU’s historical ally the US, poses a multi-dimensional challenge to the Union. The immediate security and trade threats are obvious enough. But more challenging still are the rise of nationalism and great power geopolitics, historical forces which the whole European project has been designed to overcome. Moreover, the rise of illiberalism across the globe also profoundly threatens international cooperation in absolutely vital areas like climate change and biodiversity, as well as more on prosaic issues like finance and artificial intelligence. This e-book is the follow-up publication to an online conference organised by the Global Governance Research Group of the UNA Europa university alliance, which took place in June 2025. It brings together a wide range of contributions which seek to address the complex internal and external challenges of illiberalism to the EU, along with the Union’s capacities and failures in dealing with these.”
“Can the European Union Save the International Legal Order?” (Jan Wouters)
Despite its commitment to multilateralism, the European Union has moved toward a more autonomous course of action through new unilateral instruments such as the CBAM, the European Magnitsky Act and the European Peace Facility, all of which have raised questions regarding their compatibility with international law. At the same time, its response to major contemporary challenges remains uneven: it has shown unity in the face of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, albeit with limited impact, while in the conflicts in the Middle East it has revealed deep internal divisions and minimal influence. In its dealings with the Trump II administration, the EU has reacted timidly, except in the commercial sphere, and it is not in a position to compensate for the vacuum left by the United States’ withdrawal from development cooperation. For these reasons, if the EU truly aims to safeguard the rules based international order, it must substantially strengthen its diplomatic action and its foreign policy.
“Upholding the rights of refugees: can the EU align security with its core values?” (Nuria Hernández García)
The New Pact on Migration and Asylum deepens the securitisation of the EU’s migration policy, particularly in its external dimension, through the externalisation of borders, the reinforcement of controls, and the expansion of systems such as EURODAC, thereby intensifying the logic of crimmigration. In its internal dimension, the new asylum procedure introduces measures that may weaken fundamental safeguards, such as the withdrawal of applications without the applicant’s consent or the broadening of the “safe third country” concept, creating risks for the principle of non‑refoulement. These reforms are framed within a broader constitutional crisis marked by systematic non‑compliance with the CEAS, regulatory fragmentation, and the absence of a binding solidarity mechanism among Member States. The externalisation of migration management and the prioritisation of security over human rights erode the EU’s internal and external legitimacy. Overall, the New Pact does not remedy the structural deficiencies of the system, rather, it consolidates them, and it ultimately calls for decoupling asylum policy from migration control through legal and safe pathways, returns with full guarantees, and agreements that promote regular migration.
“The European Union in the face of conspiracy theories as hybrid threats” (Carlos González Tormo)
Hybrid threats have become a critical challenge for the security and democratic stability of the European Union, as they operate in legal grey zones, hinder the attribution of responsibility, and combine tactics such as cyberattacks, disinformation, and manipulation of the information environment. Conspiracy theories, in turn, function as an especially harmful tool, spreading rapidly through social media, fuelling polarization, eroding institutional trust, and intertwining with populist and illiberal discourses. The EU has sought to respond through regulatory frameworks such as the Code of Practice on Disinformation and the Digital Services Act, yet these measures must be balanced with the protection of freedom of expression and with the inherent difficulty of prosecuting such practices. Addressing these threats requires a comprehensive approach that brings together regulation, media literacy, institutional cooperation, and a deep understanding of the digital ecosystem.
