Creating and nurturing a local innovation ecosystem with wide potential spinoffs for the economy is a great challenge, but real success stories are still relatively rare. Israel may well be one such case, particularly looking at Tel Aviv and Silicon Wadi. More broadly, the Israeli economy has come to share several traits with the most advanced and creative innovation centers.
It was noted during this talk-debate session that there are signs of economic recovery in Italy, though the indicators are half those showing for Europe and even lower in proportion than those for Spain, a country which usually registers similar performance to Italy. The level of foreign investment remains very low, with the relationship between Italy and the United States, for instance, being very skewed.
Women have a growing role in the armed forces, in the general sector of security and in peacekeeping operations. The issue of gender – of the role and power of women – will figure prominently on the agenda of the upcoming G7 meeting in Canada. Clearly, Italy’s commitment during the Taormina G7 and its efforts to keep the spotlight on the discussion of gender equality in international settings played a key role in ensuring this political success.
It was noted, at this Aspen Junior Fellows meeting and debate session, that twenty-five years ago in December 1993, the Delors’ White Paper on “Growth, Competition and Unemployment” imbued the expression “Information Society” with political significance. In those years, a great wave of innovation was, through the spread of the internet, about to trigger a profound transformation. Never before in history has such intense change taken place in so short a time. Yet this was described as just the beginning, with technological innovation, especially digital advances, driving this change.
Discussions at this national roundtable opened with the observation that the tax reforms signed into law by the Trump administration have an air of momentousness about them and have a significant impact on corporate taxation, with the company tax rate reduced from 35% to 21%. The impact on personal income tax is, however, decidedly more modest, with the tax rate cut by merely 2.6 percentage points, dropping from 39.6% to 37%. In addition, the former measure is, at least in theory, permanent, while the latter – for reasons tied to US parliamentary rules – will end in 2025.
Aspen Institute Italia’s first event for 2018 prompted a cross-generational debate on the challenges facing Europe, examined from the Mediterranean perspective of Spain and Italy. The roundtable, which saw the participation of young members from Aspen Institute Italia and Aspen Institute España, took place eight days after the Summit of Southern European countries held in Rome. The final declaration of the Summit contained a precis of the numerous challenges to be addressed, with these also forming the subject of this debate.
2017 played host to the inaugural edition of the Aspen Initiative for Europe Seminar “Europe: The Next Generation, Shared Values”, organized jointly by the Aspen Initiative for Europe, Aspen Institute Italia, and Aspen Institute España.
The consensus at this 9th annual conference of the Italian Talent Abroad group was that artificial intelligence and robotics are set to change many aspects of everyday life, ranging from transport to the environment, and from health to security. This was hailed as a game-changing process that is already underway and which risks rendering many existing economic, social, and political structures no longer fit for purpose.
On the occasion of the first conference organized in Washington, DC, by Aspen Institute Italia since the election of President Trump, we discussed the future of the Transatlantic relationship and its current challenges: these are tough times but strong Euro-American ties remain indispensable to European security. The various dimensions of the Transatlantic relationshsip have also been the object of the closed door hoc meetings held on June 6 (“For a new Transatlantic compact: values, interests, p
In taking stock of prevailing business conditions, the participants at this international conference characterized the global economic climate as one marked by a high level of volatility, with closer interconnections and shorter cycles than in the past. While the juggernaut of emerging markets has suffered somewhat of a slowdown, the United States has come out of the crisis that broke in 2008 in better shape than other advanced economies – particularly Europe, though it too has bounced back to near potential growth levels.
Kicking off discussions at this roundtable was the observation that big data – seen by some as akin to “oil” in the sense that, like the latter, it needs to be “refined” in order to be useful – lies at the heart of data-driven innovation, the new industrial revolution. Like any revolution, it has important ramifications, in terms of new services and market dynamics, on economies and societies throughout the world.
Kick-starting this Meeting for the Friends of Aspen group was the observation that an end to information asymmetries, the achievement of absolute net neutrality, the elimination of any intermediation, and the attainment of pure democracy were just some of the benefits that were to be delivered by the big data revolution. Today, however, there has been a shift from widespread techno-optimism to an outlook of doom and gloom, predicated on market concentration, political manipulation and control, and even regard of the development of the internet as a threat to democracies.
The Eastern Mediterranean region is undergoing a profound transformation as regards the energy sector, in the context of a changing energy landscape in terms of demand, supply and available technologies. The MENA region as a whole is fast becoming a major energy importer, just as the US has already become a major exporter – and possibly a “swing producer” directly affecting world energy prices. Inevitably, various geopolitical considerations come into play along the path to a new equilibrium.
The financial crisis, the economic crisis, a crisis in the traditional workings of democracy, “Europe in crisis”: these were the phenomena highlighted by participants at this Aspen Junior Fellows Meeting as currently unfolding against a general backdrop of economic woes that are fomenting populism and racism. The risk – it was stressed – is that respect for the rule of law will be undermined within the European Union, despite this being one of the founding principles of the EU.
