Ambassadors as technological facilitators: How Coreper diplomats make possible the legal shaping of border security technologies

This case study appears in: Mays C, Laborie L, Griset P (eds) (2022) Inventing a shared science diplomacy for Europe: Interdisciplinary case studies to think with history.

How do professional diplomats shape Schengen Area border security technologies?  The development and operation of these large-scale technological systems are increasingly based on specialized European Union (EU) law – of which draft text can never be tabled for approval by the EU Justice and Home Affairs ministers without the agreement of a particular set of diplomats. These are the EU Member States ambassadors appointed to Coreper, the Permanent Representatives Committee of the Treaty on the European Union. The ambassadors seek consensus on technological issues and negotiate within their group the terms under which they can vest procedural trust in supranational networks of experts, technocrats and administrators accomplishing the preparatory work. What they mainly care about in this case is that technological views are cleared of differences between Member States. The underlying political epistemology of this special kind of security and technology diplomacy and its legal consequences are catalytic factors for the framing of the technological side of EU border policies.