Putin turned the weather hostile.
Trump removed the sun loungers.
When we wandered back to the hotel lobby,
our glasses were half empty, and the rooms quietly bought by Xi Jinping.
The shock is not that others act in their interest.
The shock is how long Europe confused comfort with security.
We are in a crisis of dependency.
Vacation is over, there are not easy choices left.
Convenience in cloud, outsourcing and cheap energy is just a bill deferred,
waiting to be paid with debt, coercion, exposure.
This is why we started ART.
ART stands for Autonomy, Resilience and Technology – viewed through a resource lens.
We focus on where Europe is structurally dependent, what can realistically be done about it, what autonomy can enable, what resilience requires, and what it will cost.
Practical.
Actionable.
Uncomfortable.
Because today – again – we discovered that the decades-old Western order no longer exists.
We face severe material constraints, from critical minerals for the energy transition to phosphorus for fertilisers. Even basic pharmaceuticals like penicillin or paracetamol are not produced at scale in Europe anymore.
We have security commitments we cannot independently enforce, while we borders two revisionist powers:
one openly threatening the Baltics,
the other asserting control over Greenland.
None of this emerged overnight. It is the result of rational choices made under the assumption that stability was permanent and leverage would not be used – weren’t we living by a rules based order? Those assumptions don’t hold anymore. It is time for a new paradigm.
ART exists to systematically ask a narrower, harder question. Given today’s geopolitical reality, and Europe’s industrial and innovation systems,
How can societal needs be met or secured
without accepting permanent exposure or extortion?
Departing from the broadly accepted notion of the fulfillment of societal Needs, this space on the web uncovers where we are vulnerable,
- for our Healthcare
- For Nutrition
- for Housing
- For Mobility
- for Information and Communication
- For Services like banking, government and television
- for Manufactured goods
We map how industrial ecosystems and material flows relate to dependencies for these societal needs and develop strategies for retaining control in a hostile world.