How can the Netherlands mitigate the risks & effects posed by Chinese standard setting initiatives? And what can we do to secure our supply of critical materials & technologies? What if worldwide information flows are threatened and disrupted? Catch up with the latest HCSS Digest to find out!
Standard setting is becoming increasingly relevant in securing critical raw materials needed for climate and digital ambitions. But do Chinese standard setting initiatives pose a threat? And if so, what can the Netherlands do mitigate this threat and any other unwanted effects? That’s the topic of a new HCSS report, “Standards for Critical Raw Materials”, in which Irina Patrahau, Hugo van Manen, Tycho de Feijter and Michel Rademaker set out to assert if Chinese standard setting initiatives pose a threat to the Netherlands’ and EU’s national security.
The Dutch dependence on critical raw materials, which are largely controlled by China, is highly problematic – especially given the fact that these materials are essential for meeting geopolitical and environmental ambitions. Read the report “Securing critical materials for critical sectors” by Irina Patrihau, Michel Rademaker, Hugo van Manen, Lucia van Geuns, together with Ankita Singhvi and René Kleijn of the Centrum voor Milieuwetenschappen, to find out what the Netherlands, in collaboration with the EU, can do to secure its supply of critical materials & technologies.
From 5G to the data streams in contemporary military hardware to the SWIFT messaging system, our modern society depends on the speedy, secure, and uninterrupted flow of information. But what if these worldwide flows are threatened and disrupted? In a new HCSS report, Paul Verhagen, Esther Chavannes and Frank Bekkers aim to contribute to a better understanding of the notion of Flow Security and of the policy options for the Netherlands and Europe.
Boris Johnson hoped to force a breakthrough in the Brexit negotiations in Brussels this week. Han ten Broeke expects that “the realization” will prevail that a chaotic hard Brexit is undesirable and that a deal will eventually take place, he said on WNL’s Goedemorgen Nederland.
US intelligence chief Ratcliffe claimed China is conducting biological tests to create ‘super soldiers’, and has been the greatest threat to freedom and democracy since WW II. China expert Rob de Wijk notes that China won’t be worried about the claims. “The only thing China is really worried about,” De Wijk says to RTL Nieuws, “is the possible cooperation between America and Europe. The two of them can form a real block against the growing power of the Chinese.”
In an article on International Law and Cyberspace, CircleID references the paper by Alexander Klimburg and Louk Faesen, “A Balance of Power in Cyberspace“, where they argue that a realistic approach to stability and international order needs compromises that will give all parties the same “relative security and relative insecurity”. Stability in cyberspace “hinges upon the acceptance of the framework of the international order by all major powers, at least to the extent that no state is so dissatisfied that it expresses it in a revolutionary foreign policy.”
The youth movement of the SP with their idealistic view of communism, the youth of FVD with a fascination for Nazism; why are young people attracted to these kinds of thoughts, Rob de Wijk wonders in his column for Trouw.
HCSS Subject Matter Expert Heiko Borchert was part of the task force chaired by Prof. dr. Ulrich Schlie, former Defense Policy Director in the German MoD, contributing to the latest report by the Henry Kissinger Chair at CASSIS, Bonn, on the future of transatlantic relations. So far, the report has only been published in German, but an English translation will follow soon.
Congratulations to Strategic Analyst Patrick Bolder, who was awarded the change of numbers on the Officer’s Cross medal for honorable long time service as an officer from 30 to 35 years. Often called the Jeneverkruis (“Gin Cross”), since traditionally, a glass of gin was consumed during the ceremonies in the officer’s residence. This tradition was instated in 1844 by King William II and is connected to his birthday on December 6.
