Dr. Raluca Csernatoni is fellow at Carnegie Europe, working on European security and defence, with a focus on emerging and disruptive technologies (EDTs) like Artificial Intelligence (AI), at Carnegie Europe in Brussels, Belgium. At Carnegie Europe, she is also a team leader and senior policy expert on new technologies for the EU-funded project, ‘EU Cyber Diplomacy Initiative - EU Cyber Direct (EUCD)’ and leads Carnegie Europe’s research project on ‘The EU’s Techno-Politics of AI’ funded by the McGovern AI Grant.
Csernatoni is currently a professor on European Security and Defence with the Brussels School of Governance (BSoG) and its Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS), at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Belgium. At the CSDS, she is a senior research expert on digital technologies in the context of the EU-funded project, ‘Indo-Pacific-European Hub for Digital Partnerships: Trusted Digital Technologies for Sustainable Well-Being’ (INPACE). She also co-leads the Flemish Research Council (FWO) Research Network on ‘Technology, Security and Conflict’ (2024 -2029).
Since 2022, Csernatoni has been invited to join as a visiting faculty on European security, new technologies, and high-tech warfare, at the Department of International Relations of Central European University (CEU) in Vienna, Austria. She is also a co-leader of the ‘Governance of Emerging Technology’ Research Group with the Centre on Security and Crisis Governance (CRITIC) at the Royal Military College Saint-Jean, Canada.
Previously, Csernatoni was a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer with the Department of International Relations of the Institute of Political Studies (IPS) at Charles University in Prague, Czechia. Csernatoni holds a PhD and master’s degree in international relations from Central European University. She has conducted research on the EU’s security, defence, and technology policies at the Faculté des Sciences Sociales et Politiques of the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), at the Belgian Royal Higher Institute for Defence’ (RHID) and its Centre for Security and Defence Studies (CSDS), and at the International Security Information Service - Europe in Brussels. She was also a research fellow with the Study Program on European Security (SPES) at the Institute for European Politics (IEP) in Berlin, Germany.
Her published work appeared in academic journals such as Geopolitics, European Foreign Affairs Review, European Security, Critical Military Studies, Global Affairs, and European View. Her co-edited book, Emerging Security Technologies and EU Governance: Actors, Practices and Processes, was published with the Routledge Studies in Conflict, Security and Technology Series in 2020. She has authored numerous book chapters, policy analysis articles, long reports, op-eds, and commentary pieces on the EU’s defence, technological, digital, and cyber initiatives, as well as the innovation and governance of EDTs such as AI.
Great powers around the world have entered a race for AI supremacy. In the EU, the United States, China, and India, policymakers are putting forward competing frameworks to regulate AI globally while trying to achieve technological superiority.
The United States and China are engaged in a fierce contest to establish technological supremacy and set international norms in key domains, from AI to drones. The European Union has joined this race, too.
Amid a global race for AI supremacy, the EU seeks to set a gold standard for AI regulation and maintain a technological edge. Doing so will require navigating a crowded landscape characterized by state and corporate competition and a fragmented regulatory regime complex.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has prompted Romania to modernize its military structure. The country should invest in its booming IT sector, in line with the EU’s focus on emerging technologies and cyber capabilities.
State and corporate competition threatens responsible AI practices and safety regulations. The EU will have to navigate these rivalries while staying committed to a values-based AI governance.
Against the backdrop of geopolitical rivalries and the rising impact of emerging and disruptive technologies, the EU must maintain its competitive edge. It needs to deliver concrete project results to bolster its technological leadership in the global arena.
Russia’s war against Ukraine reveals much about the use of cyber capabilities in warfare and the evolving roles of states, international organizations, and the private sector in securing the digital realm.
Generative artificial intelligence models present the EU with regulatory, global governance, and security dilemmas. Brussels should work with partners to mitigate risks and set norms for trustworthy AI.
Emerging technologies are increasingly portrayed as having disruptive effects in security and defense. A new analytical framework allows for the study of such technologies along three analytical axes: temporality, performativity, and imagination.
The aspirational language in the AI roadmap forged by the EU and United States under the Trade and Technology Council is welcome. But crucially, the initiative should align the EU and U.S. positions on the technical dimensions of AI and setting global technological standards.
