Photo: Data and graph on a screen, Symbol for open science and dfigitalization

Open Science: A role for the G20 to materialise its global potential?

Photo by Pexels on Pixabay Knowledge cooperation—specifically science cooperation—is a precondition of coordinated efforts for combatting global crises from climate to finance, and from food to public health. Cloud server storage and satellite-based internet connectivity are key technologies to reducing to zero the time and distance necessary to exchange knowledge across the planet. Science could…

Photo: Landscape

Japan’s climate coalition? – Tokyo’s green chequebook diplomacy campaign is gathering momentum

Addressing a Davos audience last year, in January 2022, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida publicly declared his vision for an Asia Zero Emissions Community (AZEC). Under Tokyo’s leadership, Kishida said, AZEC would drive regional cooperation and joint financing on renewable energy technologies and infrastructure, standardisation, and an emissions trading zone. A year on, Prime Minister…

Photo: European Parliament, Plenar hall.

The (un)intended effects of EU development cooperation on democracy

By CherryX per Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 The EU has long prided itself on being a leading supporter of international democratic change. Its development cooperation budget for the period 2021-2027 has allocated €1.5 billion for a dedicated ‘Thematic Programme on Human Rights and Democracy’. The EU has also joined forces with several of its…

Photo: View from a sailboat, We cannot assume that “we are all in the same boat”, even though we are all facing the same storm.

Zeitenwende – Investing in competencies for transnational cooperation

Russia’s attack on Ukraine has put into sometimes sharp relief the different perspectives of inter- and transnational cooperation. The violation of the rules-based order after WWII caused shockwaves, specifically in Europe. Experiences of partners in, say, Africa or Asia with this international order historically differ from the European ones; consequently, even if we might share…