Available worldwide via Amazon (Kindle Edition)
US: $5.99
Other regions: Local Amazon pricing
Available here:
https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B0GMXLX56T
Information has never been more abundant. Yet many organisations struggle to understand what is actually changing. This essay explores why the challenge is no longer access to information, but the ability to recognise patterns, understand systems and navigate an increasingly fragmented world.
Strategic Briefings help organisations understand the technological, economic and institutional forces shaping their environment. By connecting developments to broader systems and long-term trends, the briefings provide a foundation for informed dialogue, reflection and strategic understanding.
Europe’s challenge is no longer simply competing with foreign companies. It is increasingly competing with state-backed industrial ecosystems. As strategic industries shift from products to infrastructure, Europe faces difficult questions about resilience, sovereignty and the future of open markets.
The future of Western Europe may depend less on any individual country than on the interaction between multiple forms of economic influence. Connectivity, complexity, specialisation, strategic capacity, openness and global reach together form an ecosystem whose resilience may become increasingly important in an age of fragmentation.
The United Kingdom remains one of the world’s most influential network economies. Through finance, law, education, research and global institutions, Britain continues to shape systems that extend far beyond its borders. Yet as economic security, industrial capacity and strategic infrastructure return to prominence, the country faces a new question: can global reach remain a source of power in an increasingly fragmented world?
Belgium occupies a unique position within Europe. Combining industry, logistics, scientific research and European governance, the country functions as a crossroads where economies, institutions and cultures converge. Its experience offers a glimpse into how complexity can become a source of resilience in an increasingly uncertain world.
ASML helped define the technological architecture of the modern semiconductor industry. Yet history suggests that every control point eventually faces new challenges. The company’s next test may not be achieving leadership, but maintaining relevance as technology, markets and geopolitics continue to evolve.
What if Elon Musk decided to buy ASML? The question may sound implausible, but it reveals a deeper reality. As technology becomes increasingly strategic, some companies may have evolved beyond ordinary market logic and into critical infrastructure.
For years, Europe spoke about digital sovereignty as a long-term ambition. With the launch of the Tech Sovereignty Package and Chips Act 2.0, that ambition is beginning to take institutional form. This series explores how semiconductors, cloud infrastructure, AI and energy are becoming part of a broader European strategy to reduce critical dependencies and strengthen technological resilience.
Artificial intelligence is often discussed as a software revolution. Increasingly, however, AI is revealing itself as something much larger: an industrial system built upon energy, semiconductors, infrastructure and global supply chains. As intelligence scales, the real competition may shift from algorithms toward the ecosystems capable of sustaining them.
