Will Europe be able to align and accelerate global cooperation in S&T to foster a new knowledge-based global order ?

Amid the fragmentation of multilateralism and the securitisation of science, Europe must decide whether international research cooperation can still be organised rather than left to drift. Drawing on securitisation theory and scholarship on research internationalisation, the paper asks whether securitisation ends international scientific collaboration or reallocates it, advancing three propositions: securitisation contracts collaboration in strategically sensitive fields (P1); collaboration persists or expands in politically legible, mission-defined domains (P2); and securitisation reallocates rather than terminates cooperation (P3). Using Scopus co-authorship data (1990–2024) for China–US, EU–China and EU-US pairings across broad scientific fields, complemented by deep dives into climate change and energy transition technologies and defence- and space-related critical technologies, trends are presented in overlapping five-year windows verified against the underlying data. Findings show contraction in basic STEM and dual-use domains, nanotechnologies, radiation-hardened microelectronics and lithography, and quantum communications, following securitising moves from around 2017 (EU-US) and 2018 (US–China), while artificial intelligence collaboration grows unhindered, marking the boundary of securitisation's reach. Mission-legible domains sustain cooperation among geopolitical rivals: EU–China collaboration surpassed both China–US and EU-US in renewable energy, solar energy and heat pumps, and energy and environmental sciences rose from about 5% of EU–China STEM co-authorship in 2000 to 12% in 2024, while the US–China share remained near 11%, direct evidence of reallocation. The paper concludes that securitisation reallocates rather than decouples collaboration, and assesses the conditions, organised openness, missions as cooperation infrastructures, and reflexive strategic autonomy, under which Europe can champion a new knowledge-based global order.