Authors: Lucas de Oliveira Paes, Margrete Seiersnes-Killingland, John Karlsrud and Ole Jacob Sending (Norwegian Institute for International Affairs)

Abstract: Accelerating geopolitical rivalry and institutional fragmentation in the shape of informal and minilateral cooperation mechanisms are restructuring global governance. While this development raises fundamental questions for all states, it is arguably distinct for the EU as a supranational body that is modelled, precisely, on advancing rules and investing in institutions to box in and temper geopolitical rivalry. The geopolitical challenge is exacerbated by the increasing complexity of existing governance arrangements, which means that it is important to get a granular and – importantly – comparative view of the design and functioning of both formal and informal governance arrangements. In this report, we offer such an analysis by comparing governance arrangements across six different issue areas (security, finance & tax, health, digitalization, climate and migration) on a set of politically salient dimensions. One set of factors concerns network features and the configuration of public and private actors and the centrality of the EU within networks of global governance. Another set of factors concerns whether governance arrangements are open or closed, anchored in normative or technical language, or based on claims to input or output legitimacy. Data for this analysis is drawn from the NAVIGATOR data nest and it aims to both identify and reduce the “search costs” for the EU in identifying the “best fit” governance arrangements for advancing the EU´s interests in global governance.

Keywords: EU, coalitions, geopolitics, informality multilateralism, search costs

Citation Recommendation: Karlsrud, John, de Oliveira Paes, Lucas, Seiersnes-Killingland, Margrete and Sending, Ole Jacob (2026). “The EU in Global Governance – Mapping the Governance Landscape”, NAVIGATOR working paper, WP 2, D. 5. (February), pp. 1-26. https://eunav.eu/