Katja Bego
@katjabego.bsky.social
Senior Research Fellow at Chatham House | international security, geopolitics and geoeconomics of tech, Europe | Currently ✍️ a book on subsea cables (Polity '26) | Amsterdammer in London 🇪🇺
The very on brand cover of Japan’s defence white paper.
October 30, 2025 at 4:49 PM
The very on brand cover of Japan’s defence white paper.
Love this image by @nixonsimon.bsky.social: what Europe needs is a drone wall for economic security and reducing dependencies.
(As we currently don't have clarity on what a drone wall would actually entail, the comparison perhaps works a little too well)
From: nixons.substack.com/p/brave-new-...
(As we currently don't have clarity on what a drone wall would actually entail, the comparison perhaps works a little too well)
From: nixons.substack.com/p/brave-new-...
October 6, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Love this image by @nixonsimon.bsky.social: what Europe needs is a drone wall for economic security and reducing dependencies.
(As we currently don't have clarity on what a drone wall would actually entail, the comparison perhaps works a little too well)
From: nixons.substack.com/p/brave-new-...
(As we currently don't have clarity on what a drone wall would actually entail, the comparison perhaps works a little too well)
From: nixons.substack.com/p/brave-new-...
Very interesting new polling data:
The vast majority of French, Germans and Italians support strengthening European tech sovereignty and incentivising "Buy European" approaches.
Another area where European voters are ahead of the policy debate.
Source: legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2025/09/2...
The vast majority of French, Germans and Italians support strengthening European tech sovereignty and incentivising "Buy European" approaches.
Another area where European voters are ahead of the policy debate.
Source: legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2025/09/2...
September 26, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Very interesting new polling data:
The vast majority of French, Germans and Italians support strengthening European tech sovereignty and incentivising "Buy European" approaches.
Another area where European voters are ahead of the policy debate.
Source: legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2025/09/2...
The vast majority of French, Germans and Italians support strengthening European tech sovereignty and incentivising "Buy European" approaches.
Another area where European voters are ahead of the policy debate.
Source: legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2025/09/2...
Verspreking I'm sure.
Brekelmans is de leider-in-waiting die Yesilgöz straks na de verkiezingen zal vervangen.
Hij zet de deur dus alvast open voor (een waarschijnlijk niet te vermijden) samenwerking met GL-PvdA tijdens de formatie.
Houdt zo misschien ook wat centrum-VVD afhakers binnenboord.
Brekelmans is de leider-in-waiting die Yesilgöz straks na de verkiezingen zal vervangen.
Hij zet de deur dus alvast open voor (een waarschijnlijk niet te vermijden) samenwerking met GL-PvdA tijdens de formatie.
Houdt zo misschien ook wat centrum-VVD afhakers binnenboord.
September 7, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Verspreking I'm sure.
Brekelmans is de leider-in-waiting die Yesilgöz straks na de verkiezingen zal vervangen.
Hij zet de deur dus alvast open voor (een waarschijnlijk niet te vermijden) samenwerking met GL-PvdA tijdens de formatie.
Houdt zo misschien ook wat centrum-VVD afhakers binnenboord.
Brekelmans is de leider-in-waiting die Yesilgöz straks na de verkiezingen zal vervangen.
Hij zet de deur dus alvast open voor (een waarschijnlijk niet te vermijden) samenwerking met GL-PvdA tijdens de formatie.
Houdt zo misschien ook wat centrum-VVD afhakers binnenboord.
"EU’s largest political group poised to call for tech sovereignty ‘war room’"
Good. We do need new institutions to address the challenge and act with urgency (and autonomy!).
But we also now need to start discussing what such an entity would actually *do*.
www.mlex.com/mlex/article...
Good. We do need new institutions to address the challenge and act with urgency (and autonomy!).
But we also now need to start discussing what such an entity would actually *do*.
www.mlex.com/mlex/article...
September 3, 2025 at 2:38 PM
"EU’s largest political group poised to call for tech sovereignty ‘war room’"
Good. We do need new institutions to address the challenge and act with urgency (and autonomy!).
But we also now need to start discussing what such an entity would actually *do*.
www.mlex.com/mlex/article...
Good. We do need new institutions to address the challenge and act with urgency (and autonomy!).
But we also now need to start discussing what such an entity would actually *do*.
www.mlex.com/mlex/article...
The US, and its companies, are betting the house on AI:
Tech giants' investment now accounts for an incredible 1% of US GDP.
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/news...
Tech giants' investment now accounts for an incredible 1% of US GDP.
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/news...
August 7, 2025 at 12:51 PM
The US, and its companies, are betting the house on AI:
Tech giants' investment now accounts for an incredible 1% of US GDP.
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/news...
Tech giants' investment now accounts for an incredible 1% of US GDP.
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/news...
Congressman Jamie Raskin scathing about Vance at @chathamhouse.org
We see an emerging authoritarian international, and JD Vance is empowering it.
Whatever Vance accuses Europe of [constraining free speech] is an Orwellian projection of what Trump has been doing in America.
We see an emerging authoritarian international, and JD Vance is empowering it.
Whatever Vance accuses Europe of [constraining free speech] is an Orwellian projection of what Trump has been doing in America.
July 30, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Congressman Jamie Raskin scathing about Vance at @chathamhouse.org
We see an emerging authoritarian international, and JD Vance is empowering it.
Whatever Vance accuses Europe of [constraining free speech] is an Orwellian projection of what Trump has been doing in America.
We see an emerging authoritarian international, and JD Vance is empowering it.
Whatever Vance accuses Europe of [constraining free speech] is an Orwellian projection of what Trump has been doing in America.
Politico's Playbook calls the Commission's ambitions to internationalise the euro "deliriously lofty" this morning.
Bit tired of the same voices which are calling out Europe's geopolitical weakness immediately disparaging all efforts to remedy it.
Bit tired of the same voices which are calling out Europe's geopolitical weakness immediately disparaging all efforts to remedy it.
June 26, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Politico's Playbook calls the Commission's ambitions to internationalise the euro "deliriously lofty" this morning.
Bit tired of the same voices which are calling out Europe's geopolitical weakness immediately disparaging all efforts to remedy it.
Bit tired of the same voices which are calling out Europe's geopolitical weakness immediately disparaging all efforts to remedy it.
Great to be in beautiful Gdańsk to talk European tech sovereignty and how to actually get there (and where more appropriate than at the European Solidarity Centre).
June 18, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Great to be in beautiful Gdańsk to talk European tech sovereignty and how to actually get there (and where more appropriate than at the European Solidarity Centre).
On increasing the NATO spending norm to 5%: “Spending more is not about pleasing an audience of one, it is about protection a billion people.”
Mark Rutte at @chathamhouse.org
Mark Rutte at @chathamhouse.org
June 9, 2025 at 2:57 PM
On increasing the NATO spending norm to 5%: “Spending more is not about pleasing an audience of one, it is about protection a billion people.”
Mark Rutte at @chathamhouse.org
Mark Rutte at @chathamhouse.org
His villa - one of the most impressive of Salzburg, until he had to leave it all behind - is currently being refurbished.
May 15, 2025 at 10:47 AM
His villa - one of the most impressive of Salzburg, until he had to leave it all behind - is currently being refurbished.
I went to visit the Stolpersteine of Stefan Zweig, his first wife Friderike and her two daughters in Salzburg.
May 15, 2025 at 10:43 AM
I went to visit the Stolpersteine of Stefan Zweig, his first wife Friderike and her two daughters in Salzburg.
Almost everything coming out of Silicon Valley nowadays has such a profoundly weird and uncanny flavour to it.
This is an actual NYT story:
This is an actual NYT story:
May 10, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Almost everything coming out of Silicon Valley nowadays has such a profoundly weird and uncanny flavour to it.
This is an actual NYT story:
This is an actual NYT story:
(16 and 42 years respectively!)
May 2, 2025 at 10:05 AM
(16 and 42 years respectively!)
Microsoft's Digital Commitments release is a watershed moment: it's the clearest admission yet that US tech companies do now genuinely fear that a widening Trans-Atlantic rift could lead to fragmentation, and perhaps even destroy their market share in Europe.
blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issue...
blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issue...
April 30, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Microsoft's Digital Commitments release is a watershed moment: it's the clearest admission yet that US tech companies do now genuinely fear that a widening Trans-Atlantic rift could lead to fragmentation, and perhaps even destroy their market share in Europe.
blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issue...
blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issue...
April 28, 2025 at 12:17 PM
I fear that would create bad incentives in which I would keep buying my own copies (my cable merch is taking on concerning dimensions)
April 15, 2025 at 6:19 PM
I fear that would create bad incentives in which I would keep buying my own copies (my cable merch is taking on concerning dimensions)
Export controls are only effective when you can enforce them.
In addition to China's steady efforts to take control of critical mineral supply chains, Beijing also become a lot more adept at actually monitoring export flows (no doubt learning from the US's struggles creating an airtight regime).
In addition to China's steady efforts to take control of critical mineral supply chains, Beijing also become a lot more adept at actually monitoring export flows (no doubt learning from the US's struggles creating an airtight regime).
April 14, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Export controls are only effective when you can enforce them.
In addition to China's steady efforts to take control of critical mineral supply chains, Beijing also become a lot more adept at actually monitoring export flows (no doubt learning from the US's struggles creating an airtight regime).
In addition to China's steady efforts to take control of critical mineral supply chains, Beijing also become a lot more adept at actually monitoring export flows (no doubt learning from the US's struggles creating an airtight regime).
China's critical mineral supply chain chokeholds, ranked by their "weaponizability" (e.g. China's hold on the market, importance to US supply chains, lack of alternative markets).
Many of the minerals that top the list are now under some form of (heavy) export restriction.
Ruthlessly strategic.
Many of the minerals that top the list are now under some form of (heavy) export restriction.
Ruthlessly strategic.
April 14, 2025 at 8:22 AM
China's critical mineral supply chain chokeholds, ranked by their "weaponizability" (e.g. China's hold on the market, importance to US supply chains, lack of alternative markets).
Many of the minerals that top the list are now under some form of (heavy) export restriction.
Ruthlessly strategic.
Many of the minerals that top the list are now under some form of (heavy) export restriction.
Ruthlessly strategic.
This is incidentally the same guy who, despite being “the chief economist” of a think tank, was as of last week not familiar with the concept of comparative advantage.
April 12, 2025 at 4:15 PM
This is incidentally the same guy who, despite being “the chief economist” of a think tank, was as of last week not familiar with the concept of comparative advantage.
Blue bell season in Highgate Wood
April 12, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Blue bell season in Highgate Wood
Barely 2 months ago, Germany was the sick man of Europe.
Now we are here.
Now we are here.
April 11, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Barely 2 months ago, Germany was the sick man of Europe.
Now we are here.
Now we are here.
It is obvious that China has a lot to gain from the US's chaotic retreat.
But - if it plays the strategic cards it has suddenly been dealt well - I actually think it is Europe which could ultimately emerge the biggest winner.
But - if it plays the strategic cards it has suddenly been dealt well - I actually think it is Europe which could ultimately emerge the biggest winner.
April 11, 2025 at 12:02 PM
It is obvious that China has a lot to gain from the US's chaotic retreat.
But - if it plays the strategic cards it has suddenly been dealt well - I actually think it is Europe which could ultimately emerge the biggest winner.
But - if it plays the strategic cards it has suddenly been dealt well - I actually think it is Europe which could ultimately emerge the biggest winner.
"Shock and awe therapy"
Now even more apt: everyone loses, but someone, in between all the wreckage and noise, is walking away with billions.
Now even more apt: everyone loses, but someone, in between all the wreckage and noise, is walking away with billions.
April 7, 2025 at 2:55 PM
"Shock and awe therapy"
Now even more apt: everyone loses, but someone, in between all the wreckage and noise, is walking away with billions.
Now even more apt: everyone loses, but someone, in between all the wreckage and noise, is walking away with billions.