Podcasts about Politics
Innovation in the Netherlands in a geo-political perspective
2025 saw an opening of an academic year like any year. 2000 .. 3000 new students are welcomed. But 2025 was different. TU/e invited the Dutch Minister of Defense, not of education, not of economic affairs. And as an expert on the geopolitical state of affairs, TU/e invited Maaike Okano-Heijmans, a Senior research Fellow with the Clingendael Institute.
One statement from her was about resilience; a hot topic these days: You could do two things: either you build walls, or you run faster. Jean-Paul Linnartz (Radio 4 Brainport) asks here whether we can run fast? Maaike thinks that simply have to run faster. Of course we need to invest in protecting ourselves. And some of that involves building walls. We’ve done that with export controls, investment screenings in the past few years. But we’re realizing now that building just walls is not going to really secure our societies and our economies. We have to build strength and competitiveness. And that’s why we need to invest in ourselves, invest in education. Brainport is very strong in open innovation via international relations. It starts with ASML, which thrives on doing business all over the world. Brainport is indeed international also hosts many international students.
Can we still cooperate internationally with rapidly changing geopolitics, where it’s more or less everyone on his own? Maaike thinks of two different things. We collaborate more as Europeans? And then there’s of course, the world beyond that. Collaborating with the U.S., unfortunately, is running into difficulties these days. Welcoming researchers from the US is a very new thing, relocating for political reasons. But it is needed that we continue openness, continue collaboration with others, and we really have to rethink who are our partners. Openness is important, but as EU commissioner Thierry Breton expressed it: we need to be autonomous. Maaike Okano-Heijmans thinks we need to be open and strong. That’s how complicated the world is getting. Being relevant and strong, requires that we invest in ourselves, but also in collaboration. But being autonomous, what does that mean? That we can take care of ourselves or that we do everything ourselves? Shutting us off, i.e., building walls, is the sort of autonomy that I don’t think we should advocate. Rather being more relevant and more autonomous, which means that we have strength ourselves.
Should Dutch government protect us better? Maaike recognizes cybersecurity challenges, data security challenges for a government and even so for our companies, but also. misinformation and disinformation. As we approach elections, these may be on governments agenda. But others interfering with our data, trying to get access to our data, trying to manipulate our data, that’s, that’s a huge challenge, that we see throughout society. It has been in previous elections and it will be in this election. Let’s hope that it won’t be so big that we notice, because once you start noticing it was become really bad. Can technology companies act against fake news?
Your portfolio at the Clingendael Institute is geopolitics, technology and digital. Digital is more than technology? Maaike sees digitalization as a complex term. Nobody speaks about technological governance. We speak about digital governance. And we speak about digital societies, not about tech societies. It’s important also to educate everybody that a digital society is built on technology. But it’s not only about technologies. It’s also about how we use them. For example, China chooses to use technologies to manage society in different ways than we do. The Internet is example of technology that impacts a digital society, it brings social media and influencers: How strong is the Netherlands?
Is it a role for the government? European legislation and regulation forces tech companies to take responsibility, e.g. via the Digital Services Act, the AI act, or the data act. But I think tech companies can do more. It is in their best interest that society trusts technology. If we lose trust, people might start to use less of them. That would be bad news for everybody. This is what I meant with geopolitical due diligence. I hope that, companies will take upon themselves to understand the world around them, to understand that their responsibility as a company goes beyond providing jobs and making profits.
We see three different, transitions that we’re going through: a green transition, a digital transition and a geopolitical transition. All three transitions affect companies, societies and governments. For companies, there’s money to be made with each transition. I think if they anticipate and if they co-create with governments, there’s a lot of money to be made. The same can go for the green transition. China realized that solar power was developing. They embraced solar panels is a huge opportunity. So now they’re making huge profits.
European elections 2024
Europe does not only have friends in the world. Our role is under economic pressure. Geopolitically, we face military threats. But today I want to go further: will our democracy survive? We are flooded with fake news and deliberate disinformation, We see veto-ers and influencers just for the sake of influencing. A pitch by Jean-Paul Linnartz in the Europe Debate, Parktheather, Eindhoven, May 2024.