Insights

Artificial intelligence (AI), particularly increasingly autonomous systems, raises significant privacy concerns due to its ability to continuously observe, analyze, and act on personal data. However, AI is also essential for protecting privacy in today’s complex digital ecosystem. The complexity and dynamism of modern data practices exceed human capacity for effective manual privacy management, making AI indispensable for understanding, monitoring, and managing privacy risks in contexts ranging from mobile apps to IoT devices and AI chatbots.
No Privacy without AI
UN peacekeepers have increasingly undertaken complex infrastructure projects, such as roads, bridges, renewable power plants, and electricity grids, as part of their peacekeeping efforts since World War II. This shift reflects an evolving approach to peace that integrates risk management, legacy, and climate security, influencing how peace is conceptualized and implemented in conflict zones. The involvement of the UN in sustainable development through these infrastructure initiatives underscores the need to understand their spatial, urban, and material impacts, highlighting both their potential benefits and risks in the context of growing climate challenges.
Peace Infrastructures
The AI Index Report 2026 highlights an ongoing surge in AI adoption, investment, and near-human performance across various fields, signaling an AI "summer." However, it also warns of a looming "data winter" due to potential exhaustion of high-quality human-generated data by 2026–2032. This data scarcity challenges AI’s current growth model, which depends heavily on vast amounts of real-world data. Synthetic data, while helpful, cannot yet replace the quality and diversity of real data in training large AI models, suggesting that AI’s rapid advancements may face significant limitations without new data sources.
Education
AI Summer, Data Winter: What the AI Index Reveals — and What It Doesn’t Yet Measure
The UK steel industry aims to transition from traditional blast furnaces to electric arc furnaces (EAFs) that use scrap steel, aligning with net zero and economic goals. However, 70% of UK steel is imported, and 80% of its scrap steel is exported, creating a supply chain challenge. The success of this strategy hinges on retaining more scrap domestically, requiring infrastructure investments in scrap sorting and processing. While EAFs reduce carbon emissions by about 75%, they consume large amounts of costly electricity, posing economic challenges. Past efforts show EAF technology works, but factors like electricity costs, scrap supply, and policy have historically hindered viability. The strategy's effectiveness depends on resolving these systemic issues.
The UK wants a cleaner steel industry – but its plan rests on a supply chain that doesn’t exist yet
Intergenerational foresight emphasizes making decisions today with a serious consideration of long-term impacts. It advocates for responsible leadership that prioritizes future generations rather than viewing the future as distant or abstract. The approach offers practical principles, tools, and examples to help leaders identify risks, opportunities, and trade-offs across generations, integrating long-term thinking into policy, strategy, and governance. As global uncertainty increases and decision reversibility decreases, intergenerational foresight becomes essential for sustainable and responsible governance.
Health, Education
Intergenerational Foresight: An Approach for Long-Term Responsibility in Governance
The Iran conflict has significantly disrupted global energy and fertilizer markets, impacting Britain's food sector. Key factors include soaring fuel prices, especially red diesel used in agriculture, and rising fertilizer costs due to regional production halts and export limitations via the Strait of Hormuz. Increased shipping insurance premiums and rerouting have boosted transport costs, affecting food import expenses. These disruptions contribute to inflation pressures on British agriculture, food production, and retail, underscoring the sector's vulnerability to Middle East geopolitical tensions and highlighting the need for government response strategies.
Bermuda, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Mexico, New Zealand, Niger, Norway, Türkiye, United Kingdom
What impact is the Iran war having on the British food sector?
A global study surveying over 14,000 people in 12 countries examined preferences in healthcare prioritization between saving more lives versus more years of life, using COVID vaccine scenarios. Most favored saving younger individuals with longer life expectancy, but not to the extent predicted by strict life-year maximization models (QALYs). On average, respondents were willing to trade about 2.5 older lives for one younger life, less than the 3:1 ratio expected by QALY logic. Employment status influenced choices, with working individuals prioritized more regardless of age, indicating social factors affect decisions. Findings highlight a gap between policy emphasis on maximizing total life-years and public values, which also weigh fairness and social roles.
Health
Would you save more lives or more years of life? A global study reveals how people really think
Péter Magyar’s Tisza Party won a decisive victory in Hungary’s April 2024 election, ending Viktor Orbán’s 16-year rule by securing over 53% of votes and two-thirds of parliamentary seats. The Fidesz party’s decline stemmed from a series of scandals involving corruption, child protection abuses, environmental neglect, and government mismanagement, which severely damaged public trust. Additionally, prolonged economic missteps, including reliance on expansionary policies without investment in innovation and continued dependence on German industry and Russian energy, resulted in poor growth and high inflation. These factors combined to erode Fidesz’s popularity and enabled Tisza’s rise.
Hungary
What should we expect from the next Hungarian government?
The Arctic and Arctic-North Atlantic region are becoming increasingly geopolitically important due to accessible shipping routes and resources. Germany aims to intensify its political, military, and economic involvement, emphasizing close cooperation with Arctic states, the EU, and NATO. Viewing the Arctic-North Atlantic as a unified strategic space linked to European security, Germany seeks to stabilize the region and uphold a rules-based order through defined political, economic, and security measures. Germany's 2024 Arctic policy guidelines prioritize integrating civilian and military efforts, embedding Arctic strategy within broader European frameworks, and enhancing diplomatic, economic, scientific, and military engagement to safeguard national and European interests.
Antarctica, Norway
Germany as Arctic Security Actor
Quantum technologies are rapidly evolving from research to economic applications, presenting new security challenges and uncertain development paths that require strategic policy responses. Saudi Arabia, through its Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, was the first nation to implement the World Economic Forum's Quantum Economy Blueprint at a national level. The pilot highlights that successful quantum readiness depends on institutional coherence, sustained strategic commitment, and early governance integration alongside technological advancement. It offers nine transferable lessons to guide countries in developing coordinated and effective quantum economy strategies.
Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates | Financial services, ICT, Education
Piloting the Quantum Economy Blueprint: Lessons from Saudi Arabia
Energy systems are facing increasing challenges from rapid electrification, rising AI-driven power demand, cyber threats, and renewable integration complexities, exceeding the capabilities of traditional digital tools. Quantum technologies—including computing, sensing, and communication—offer new opportunities to enhance energy generation, grid infrastructure, and services. Key areas for quantum application include accelerating clean-energy materials innovation, optimizing operations, strengthening infrastructure security, and enabling precise monitoring. Early adoption of quantum solutions can improve efficiency, resilience, and adaptability, with progress relying on coordinated efforts in standards, workforce development, cybersecurity, and cross-sector collaboration.
Financial services, ICT, Education
Quantum for Energy and Utilities: Key Opportunities for Energy Transition
Mangroves, tidal marshes, and seagrass meadows are vital for climate resilience, coastal economies, and biodiversity but receive less than 1% of international climate finance. Financial institutions can integrate blue carbon ecosystems into investment strategies through four pathways: sustainability credits, supply chains, infrastructure, and insurance. Key challenges include regulatory complexity, high transaction costs, and limited project scale. The guide proposes eight interventions, such as blended finance and risk-sharing tools, to unlock investment opportunities. It emphasizes blue carbon's potential as a scalable investment theme with strong commercial and environmental impact.
Financial services
Turning the Tide: A Financier’s Guide to Investing in Blue Carbon Ecosystems
Mangroves, tidal marshes, and seagrass meadows are vital for climate resilience, coastal economies, and biodiversity but receive less than 1% of global climate finance. This guide for financial institutions outlines four investment pathways: sustainability credits, supply chains, infrastructure, and insurance. It addresses barriers like regulatory complexity, high costs, and limited project scale, proposing eight interventions such as blended finance and risk-sharing tools. The guide emphasizes aligning investments with market realities and community needs to scale blue carbon ecosystems as a commercially viable and impactful investment theme.
Turning the Tide: A Financier’s Guide to Investing in Blue Carbon Ecosystems
Artificial intelligence can help close the digital divide if paired with investments in digital literacy and inclusion from the ground up. Many individuals and small businesses in Asia and the Pacific are adopting digital tools, but lack confidence due to risks like fraud, scams, and complex online systems. Women and girls face particular challenges, risking a widening AI divide. Digital capability—understanding payments, navigating services, and recognizing misinformation—is crucial alongside access. A hybrid approach combining community-based training and digital tools, supported by partnerships and multilingual resources, can build safer, more confident users. Bridging the AI divide requires deliberate efforts to equip all citizens for productive and secure technology use.
Africa | Financial services, ICT, Education
Making AI Work for Digital Inclusion
Generative AI is a transformative general-purpose technology with broad applicability and industry impact. However, its true business value depends on innovation beyond invention—turning it into products, services, and models that create and capture value. Value creation unfolds in three phases: emerging, enabling, and embedding. Currently in the emerging phase, generative AI involves high uncertainty, requiring firms to balance rapid commercialization with experimentation to learn and adapt. Its enabling phase highlights the need for complementary assets like infrastructure, data, talent, and workflows to realize economic potential across diverse applications. Successful adoption hinges on shared infrastructure and synergistic implementations rather than fragmented, isolated deployments.
Education
Generative AI Won’t Create Value on Its Own
National-populist parties in Hungary, Poland, and Italy have come to power, leading to an analysis of their governing practices across economic, social, migration, environmental, foreign policy, and rule of law areas. Despite radical campaign rhetoric, these governments often adopt pragmatic approaches in office due to EU financial dependence, labor shortages, and energy transition challenges. Each country's policies reflect distinct national contexts, especially regarding rule of law reforms. Notably, Hungary diverges from Poland and Italy in foreign policy by maintaining ties with Russia amid the Ukraine conflict, refusing sanctions and military support. Overall, national-populist governance reveals a blend of rhetoric and practical adaptation.
Hungary, Poland, Italy: National-Populists on Trial
The Trump administration’s US imperial policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean focuses on dominance and exclusivity, employing coercive measures to force economic changes in Venezuela without political transition. In January 2026, the US abducted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a covert military operation causing over 100 deaths. The US also imposed an effective fuel blockade on Cuba, severely worsening its economy and threatening control over the country. Legal experts widely agree these actions violate international law. The US strategy revives the Monroe Doctrine aiming for regional dominance, increased military presence, and securing resources, under the doctrine of “Peace through Strength.” Germany and the EU are urged to support civil society in Venezuela and Cuba and oppose violations of international norms and human rights abuses.
Venezuela
Autocracies under US Tutelage
The escalation of conflict in the Middle East, particularly threats to the Strait of Hormuz, has sharply disrupted global oil and LNG supplies, causing energy prices to surge above $100 per barrel. This energy shock challenges the resilience of the global economy, creating uncertain growth prospects. While the OECD projects global GDP growth at 2.9% in 2026, energy importers like Europe and parts of Asia face income squeezes and higher inflation, with headline inflation in G20 countries expected to rise by 1.2 percentage points to 4%. Prolonged conflict could push oil prices to $120-$200 per barrel, potentially triggering stagflation—recession coupled with high inflation—especially impacting regions like the euro area.
Latin America | Financial services
The conflict in the Middle East has provided a true test of the resilience of the global economy
Counterterrorism efforts increasingly utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) for detection, prediction, and response to terrorism outside armed conflict. Although states affirm the need to comply with international human rights law when using AI, clarity on how these laws govern AI's legality in counterterrorism remains limited. Key relevant human rights include privacy, liberty and security, non-discrimination, freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, and rights to life and freedom from ill-treatment. These rights are analyzed in relation to AI functions through international and national legal frameworks and jurisprudence, providing guidance on the lawful application of AI in counterterrorism contexts.
Human Rights related to AI in Counterterrorism
Debt-for-nature swaps allow countries to refinance or reduce debt in exchange for funding environmental conservation, offering financial relief and long-term ecosystem protection. Originating in the late 1980s and popular in Latin America and Africa, these swaps declined in the 2000s but have recently resurged with larger, more complex deals involving banks. Asia has lagged due to less tradable debt and concerns over sovereignty but is now a potential frontier as debt levels rise and international borrowing grows. While swaps are not a complete solution, they create dedicated conservation funding, balancing debt repayment with environmental preservation amid accelerating climate change.
Financial services
Turning debt into forests: the finance tool making a comeback

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