The New Atlantic Equation: Convergence, Cooperation, and Partnerships

For the last century, the transatlantic relationship has been the most important partnership for both Europe and the United States. It has served as the foundation for global security, economic prosperity, good governance, and a shared commitment to democracy. However, with the emergence of new rising powers, the scope of the transatlantic landscape is shifting. This new world order has led the transatlantic partners to reevaluate the traditional alliance in order to better address current global realities. In doing so, they are expanding the notion of “transatlanticism” to encompass all four continents surrounding the Atlantic Basin: North America, Europe, South America, and Africa. With this new framework and growing Atlantic interdependencies, traditional forms of cooperation as well as broad partnerships are becoming critical to shaping the future of wider transatlantic relations. Together, Atlantic countries have the opportunity to build a greater foundation of cooperation for the Atlantic Basin by capitalizing on the potential of both the North and South, harnessing the dynamism of diverse societies, and developing a collaborative environment for shared knowledge. This session will focus on both the traditional and new forms of cooperation and explore how Atlantic partners are working together to find common solutions to shared challenges and concerns.

Guiding Questions

• What are the most pressing policy concerns for the Wider Atlantic?
• What are the venues for collaboration? Where do they work? Where do they fall short?
• What are examples for innovative forms of partnerships — either at the public or the private level?
• What are policy challenges where interests openly diverge? How can differences be addressed without leading to a disruption of the system/partnership?

 

Confronting Zones of Chaos

It has become fashionable to say that the international system is experiencing a period of extraordinary — even unprecedented — flux, conflict, and crisis. From Ukraine to the Sahel and West Africa, from the Levant to Afghanistan and Pakistan, chaotic conditions prevail, with no clear end in sight. Ethnic and religious cleavages, extreme ideologies, resurgent nationalism, proxy wars, and the phenomenon of foreign fighters all pose threats to traditional sovereignty. In multiple settings, and in multiple ways, the ability of states to control their territory and borders appears to be in decline. Maritime and cyber threats and the increasingly blurred line between criminal activity, terrorism, and nihilistic violence are also part of this equation. This proliferation of zones of chaos threatens to reshape the strategic environment in durable ways, with significant implications for states, alliances, societies, and individuals around the Atlantic Basin, and beyond. It will certainly pose striking new challenges for foreign and security policy, and public diplomacy.

Guiding Questions

• Is the current chaos in international security really a new phenomenon, or is it a forgotten norm?
• Is there a special Atlantic dimension to this challenge, e.g., in the Gulf of Guinea?
• What are the drivers of chaos and the declining capacity of states to control events on their territory?
• What specific risks are posed by ungoverned or perennially contested spaces?
• How should Atlantic actors respond? What new partnerships may be required? What are the risks of inaction? What are the risks of intervention?

 

Governing the Atlantic

The rise of non-Western powers, both democratic and not, have posed a challenge to the continuity of the Western liberal order established at the end of World War II and then expanded with the end of the Cold War. Liberal democracies are under strain at home in both North America and Europe with the rise of populist parties and a questioning of the liberal consensus over immigration, social and income inequality, and unresponsive governments and political parties. The international order is also seeing the rise of China and other non-liberal systems along with that of democracies. The leading role of the United States, the power that shaped the postwar order, is clearly being questioned both at home and internationally. These trends raise key issues concerning the kind of global system we can expect by mid-century. The meaning of “liberal order” is being redefined by those countries that were formally colonies of Western powers with an uncertain outcome.

Guiding Questions

• How do rising democracies like Brazil, South Africa, and India view the international order? Where are areas of agreement and cooperation with the EU and the United States?
• What can the transatlantic countries do to facilitate the integration of rising powers into the international order?
• How do democracies approach non-democratic powers in an increasingly polycentric world?
• How can institutions and Atlantic countries work together to reinforce the principles of democracies, such as promoting good governance, advancing human rights, and strengthening the rule of law?

 

The Power of Tech: Entering a Brave New World

Economies all around the Atlantic are increasingly data-driven. This technological (r)evolution is having profound impacts on existing economic and social structures, which are challenged by rapidly growing new services and ways of doing business. Similarly, human interactions are integrating more and more data-driven technologies, which are becoming increasingly essential to global well-being.

This (r)evolution is not an isolated phenomenon, but is cross-sectoral, cross-regional, and cross-generational. In Africa in particular, digital development could be transformational in sectors such as financial services, education, health, retail, agriculture, and government. Such technological developments are also made possible by a new dynamic and entrepreneurial generation. While developed economies struggle to get out of an “innovation creep,” opportunities for emerging and developing economies to benefit from an “innovation leap” are booming. Everywhere, within and beyond the Atlantic Basin, encouraging data-driven growth and jobs will require recognizing and addressing concerns consumers and citizens.

The power of technology is not a peripheral issue left to technologists, but is at the center of new socio-economic and political models. Producing, consuming, exchanging, and interacting between countries, people, and businesses will massively depend on connectivity and networks. The exponential power of the Internet and technology will also dramatically change approaches to the Atlantic space; they might be the true New Frontier.

Guiding Questions

• How can governments and businesses across the Atlantic find the right equilibrium between encouraging technological innovation and addressing people's concerns?
• Which governance structure should be developed when it comes to the Internet of things? More broadly, what kind of global governance should there be for the Internet?
• How should we develop infrastructures in emerging and developing economies, including networks?
• What are the implications for security and defense in the Atlantic Basin as technologies become increasingly interconnected? What are the implications for trade and investment flows, and for production chains?

 

The Wider Atlantic Idea – What Next?

The Atlantic Dialogues and the GMF-OCP Policy Center initiative on understanding and debating wider Atlantic policy questions are now in their fourth year. With critical developments affecting security, prosperity, and cooperation on both sides of the Atlantic, North and South — not to mention global challenges affecting Atlantic societies — the basic intellectual approach seems increasingly relevant. Interdependence is a reality for Atlantic stakeholders, even as crises, chaotic conditions, and mistrust encourage more inward looking or unilateral strategies in many spheres. For those concerned with strengthening transatlantic relations, writ large, a more comprehensive approach to the Atlantic space, and Atlantic cooperation, with a strong North-South and South-South dimension, is compelling.

Guiding Questions:

• What are the logical and useful next steps?
• How can the traditional axes of cooperation between North America and Europe be extended to embrace partners in the Southern Atlantic?
• To what extent is this desirable from the perspective of North and South? And put another way, how can North America and Europe contribute to initiatives emanating from the South?
• Looking ahead, what is the role of projects like the Atlantic Dialogues, and Atlantic Currents — our new, annual survey of wider Atlantic patterns and perspectives? What issues should be on our agenda? Which new actors should we engage? What are the lessons learned from this wider Atlantic conversation?

 

De-Coding the United States: How its Regions View the World

Perspectives and policies emanating from Washington loom large in the United States’ international policies, and in the way they are seen abroad. But official policymaking and thinking “inside the Beltway” tells only part of the story when it comes to U.S. engagement. Today’s U.S. cities act on the local, national, transatlantic, and global stages. Whether it is immigration, energy, climate change, security, there is an increasing demand for local leaders to transcend locally driven political agendas and become more engaged in global affairs. A comprehensive global engagement strategy allows cities to leverage local successes to capture new audiences and markets that ultimately bolster the local economy.

At the same time, stakeholders around the Atlantic Basin often see the United States through the lens of specific regions. Latin America’s ties with Florida and the Gulf states are a key example. U.S. port cities, from Baltimore to Los Angeles, will need to understand and adapt to the evolving geo-economics of the Atlantic Basin, including the expansion of the Panama Canal and changing patterns of shipping and manufacturing. A full discussion of Atlantic partnerships requires “de-coding” the international perspectives of the United States’ cities and regions.

Guiding Questions

• What is driving the global engagement of the United States’ cities and regions, and how is this activism expressed and felt?
• How are leaders communicating the necessity of being globally engaged to their local constituencies?
• What are the implications for U.S. foreign policy priorities — and individual perceptions as U.S. cities become more globally engaged?
• How are regional factors shaping engagement with Atlantic partners, north and south?

 

Giving Ground: Why Inclusive & Sustainable Cities Matter

In 2012, Nobel Laureate Economist Joseph Stiglitz boldly asserted that the global financial crisis was due in part to rising income inequalities in countries around the world. In the aftermath of the crisis, cities across the Atlantic Basin erupted in response to growing unemployment, rising costs for basic services, lack of civic engagement in decision-making, and uneven socio-economic development. Birmingham, Husby, Istanbul, and Rio affirmed the critical importance of an urban agenda that focuses as much on inclusive growth and shared prosperity as on sustainable development.

The seventh World Urban Forum that convened this past April in Medellin, Columbia, tackled this critical theme of equitable and inclusive urban development. One of the key principles emerging from this forum was that cities are the solution, not the problem, to reducing the inequality of opportunity. As the engines of the global economy, there is as much an economic imperative to building inclusive and sustainable cities as a moral one. The inequality of opportunity is not only about employment, but also about access to healthcare, education, and housing, as well as engagement in civic life and political processes. City leaders cannot tackle these issues alone; cross sector partnerships, strategic alliances with national governments, and a stronger voice in global affairs are needed. In this session, local leaders from cities of the Atlantic Basin, who are on the front lines of building prosperous, inclusive, and sustainable cities, will share their insights.

Guiding Questions

• What are some of the concrete actions that cities are taking at the local level to address inequality of opportunity and encourage more inclusive growth?
• As strategies are incubated and tested at the local level, are national governments and global institutions paying attention?
• Tackling inclusive and sustainable growth is not the task for city government alone. How are cities balancing bold vision and strategic partnerships with public participation and transparency?
• What are the risks to a city’s civic life and the level political engagement if a sustainable and inclusive urban agenda is not a top priority for city leaders?
• Major institutions including the United Nations, the European Union, and the Africa Union have adopted the goal of inclusive and sustainable urban development, signaling the need for strong local voices in shaping both policy and implementation approaches. How can local leaders overcome the challenges of engaging globally when the needs at home are so great?

 

Partners in Prosperity: Trading and Investing Across the Atlantic

Global economic relations have dramatically evolved in the last decades, and the wider Atlantic region may be in the midst of a greater transformation. Mainly based on the complex dynamics of foreign investments, exchanges between developed, emerging, and developing economies are fostering new interdependencies that reflect new political, economic, and social realities. National interests remain predominant, and for every opportunity in accessing markets, there are as many challenges. While trade agreements are slowly unlocking the potential of greater economic ties throughout the Atlantic, increased investments are creating the potential for long-term relations. Whether in stocks or in flows, investments are (re)defining relations between countries and between businesses. They directly contribute to reshaping the global economic relations between producers and consumers, creditors and debtors, donors and recipients. At the same time, measures taken to limit them are indicators of how open Atlantic economies really are.

The shift for aid to trade and investment as the focus for renewed relations between Europe and Africa can also be seen as a redefining paradigm for the entire region. Creating wealth and value in the Atlantic region will vastly depend on the nature and dynamic of economic exchanges. The Atlantic region could provide new impetus for better managed global economic relations. This is all the more true as a new generation of entrepreneurs all across the basin is eager to maximize the economic and social benefits of a greater interconnected and integrated Atlantic economy.

Guiding Questions

• When it comes to economic cooperation, what are the implications of multiplying layers among trade partners?
• When it comes to investments, what are new priorities and strategies in redefining the global supply chain?
• When it comes to investors, which levels of protection and incentives are mutually accepted, or decried?
• When it comes to societies, how are they absorbing new and more intense levels of exchanges?
• When it comes to the future of the global economy, what are expectations for the wider Atlantic?

 

Creative Session: Digital Technologies and Accountable Governance

Are new technologies — and the information environment they enable — making governance more, or less, accountable? Over the last two decades, the explosion of social media networks, the low costs of mobile handsets, and the spread of cable and satellite television have given publics access to more information than ever about their governments and political systems. Across the developed and developing world, people are now better informed about the world they live in, and have more outlets to express their political opinions. The digital revolution has been credited with giving a voice to frustrated middle classes and marginalized groups in the likes of Côte d’Ivoire, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa, and the United States. At the same time, such technological developments have also encouraged grandstanding by political leaders, the spread of false or malicious rumors, extreme political divisiveness, and the dissemination of socially disruptive material.

Guiding Questions

• Can the same tools that make political discourse more democratic be used to make governments and political leaders more accountable to their citizens?
• And can new technologies produce more mature political systems and effective governance instead of contributing to greater gridlock and partisanship?

 

Financing Development

Current spending on African infrastructure is far below the continent’s investment needs. In sub-Saharan Africa, this investment gap is particularly acute. Infrastructure investments are pivotal for sustainable growth and necessary to address multiple market failures and inefficiencies. Although international financial institutions have made numerous efforts to meet Africa’s infrastructure needs and attract private investment, sub-Saharan Africa’s investment gap is estimated at 15 percent of total African GDP. The magnitude of this ongoing challenge raises the question of whether official development assistance should be supplemented or supplanted by private investments in infrastructure. Emerging markets will be key partners in formulating innovative policy responses to closing the investment gap, and any increase in private investment hinges on the continent’s ability to attract significant flows of private capital. Specifically, long-term investments such as pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and infrastructure funds, offer a potential source of private capital.

Guiding Questions

• What is impeding the effective use of development funds provided by international financial institutions (IFI)?
• What opportunities exist to combine increased public and private investments with IFI funding?
• How can private investment in limited revenue-generating infrastructure projects be incentivized?
• How can sovereign wealth funds be used to close sub-Saharan Africa’s infrastructure gap? What are the associated risks and how can they be mitigated?

 

New and Old Challenges to Health Security

The current Ebola outbreak is a global public health emergency that demonstrates the importance of early detection, prevention, and response for effective global health security. The Ebola virus is highly transmittable to others in the acute symptomatic disease state for approximately six days through bodily fluids although long-term virus has been detected in bodily fluids for weeks after recovery. The precision around the depth and breath of the epidemic is due to the variable 2-21 day incubation period — the time period between exposure and symptoms. The cases we are seeing today have already exposed large numbers of additional people, creating the capacity for substantial spread of the virus to others. The current estimates of disease spread vary greatly and range from 50,000 to 1.4 million infections over the next 3-4 months. Control of this pandemic is a threat to global public responses and the effectiveness of our global detect, respond and prevent strategies.

The fatality rates vary depending on early access to supportive care, anywhere from 25 to 90 percent. Ebola virus disease (EVD) first appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks, one in Nzara, Sudan, and the other in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo, in a village near the Ebola River. There have been between 15-20 outbreaks since 1976, but the current outbreak in West Africa (first cases notified in March 2014) is the largest and most complex outbreak since the virus was first discovered. There have been more cases and deaths in this outbreak than all others combined. It has also spread between countries starting in Guinea then spreading across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia, by air to Nigeria and the United States, and by land to Senegal.

Community engagement is critical to successfully controlling outbreaks. Good outbreak control relies on applying a package of interventions, namely case management, surveillance and contact tracing, a good laboratory service, safe and sensitive burials, and social mobilization.

Guiding Questions

• What actions are being taken to control the outbreak? Is this enough?
• What else can be done?
• Has this crisis forced nations to begin to develop new models of cooperation?
• Since disease knows no borders, what should governments be doing to create a new dynamic to combat these rising crises?

 

Engineering a New Agriculture Revolution in Africa

Agricultural yields and productivity have steadily increased over the last several decades, led by the United States. But in recent years, emerging economies have seen similar increases. Brazil has become one of the world’s top food producers, despite its predominately tropical climate. The transformation of Brazil’s Cerrado region is a key driver of Brazil’s emergence as a major agricultural producer with record yields anticipated in 2014. Across the Atlantic, African agriculture has enormous potential to reduce poverty, strengthen food security, accelerate economic growth, and position the continent as a major player in global food markets. The continent contains over half of the world’s uncultivated, arable lands, much of it sparsely populated and not forested. African governments are now making agriculture a top priority with the hope of triggering a new agricultural revolution on the continent. Nevertheless, African agriculture faces enormous challenges, ranging from population growth and lack of investment, to crippling limitations on intra-continent trade and externally imposed prohibitions against the use of genetically modified seeds with high yields.

Guiding Questions

• What is holding back African agriculture? How can we accelerate a new agriculture revolution in Africa?
• What policy changes must take place, both within and outside Africa, for it to reach its full potential in agricultural production?
• How best can we transform Africa’s agriculture through inclusive and innovative partnerships?
• What are the innovative models for collaboration that can spark the necessary step-change we need in agriculture?
• Which agricultural inputs are best suited to sustainably increase yields in Africa’s geographically diverse agricultural system?
• Are African governments and their development partners doing enough to unlock the full potential of agriculture through sustained multi-sectorial interventions?
• What can Africa learn from Brazil’s success agricultural development and what are the prospects of the cooperation between Africa and Brazil?

 

Gender and Equity in the Atlantic Basin

This session will use gender as a lens to examine the challenges to achieving diverse leadership, economies, and societies across sectors and borders, and the benefits that could subsequently be reaped. A growing body of research demonstrates that leadership inclusive of diverse workforces conclusively results in increased innovation, competitive edge, and equity. While inclusion is crucial at multiple levels, including ethnicity, region, faith, and socioeconomic status, some of the most decisive gains to date have been made in terms of gender. Leaders from business, government, and social impact investing from three continents in the wider Atlantic region will share leadership strategies for shaping inclusive economies and societies — both at the macro and micro levels.

Guiding Questions

• Which policies and forms of advocacy have most effectively empowered women?
• How do the challenges for gender equity differ across regions and sectors?
• How has implementing these policies worked in practice, and what insights can be gained into how these strategies can also be applied to achieve gains in terms of other diversity factors such as race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status?

 

Courting Africa: Changing Geopolitics?

From the forgotten continent, Africa has risen to the fore of policy discussions in recent years. In the wake of the global economic slowdown, hopes of growth are being pinned on the African continent as established and emerging economies look for new markets and opportunities. From Europe to China, the United States to India, and Brazil to Turkey and the Gulf States, African leaders are being courted the world over. As its leaders become better able to set agendas and defend their national interests, existing and potential partners face increased competitive pressures. For the continent to thrive and become the new engine of global growth, it will also need to find stability and tackle extremely complex and deeply rooted security challenges. Whether as the next growth hub or theater for conflict, or somewhere in between, the demographic, political, and economic developments in Africa are bound to affect global geopolitics; the continent is set to play an increasingly prominent role in international affairs. This session will address the strategies of key actors vis-à-vis the continent and how these affect relations between established and emerging powers.

Guiding Questions

• How does this renewed interest in the continent and presence of a large range of external actors affect the way they cooperate, coordinate, or compete with Africa’s institutions, its leaders, and each other?
• To what extent are African countries able to leverage these new dynamics to the benefit of their populations?
• How much say will African leaders and people have in these new geopolitical dynamics?

Two Seas, Two Systems: Atlantic and Pacific Approaches to Economic Integration and Development

Further integration would seem to offer growth and development incentives in the wider Atlantic that are at least as compelling as those in the greater Pacific. Atlantic countries comprise the largest production zone in the world, the biggest FDI “market,” and perhaps soon the greatest global energy market. Yet integration momentum and dynamics are different in the two basins. Integration — especially in trade — seems more easily and widely embraced by Pacific countries, despite the many cultural, economic, normative, and historical differences, than among those of the wider Atlantic. Different approaches by Pacific and Atlantic South America seem to underscore this point. The former have concluded scores of free trade accords, are active protagonists in efforts to reach a major new plurilateral Pacific trade agreement, include OECD members or aspirants, and, via the Pacific Alliance are seeking unprecedented levels of internal integration (e.g. merging capital and stock markets, free movement of labor) to strengthen their competitiveness and influence. Atlantic South America, excluding Colombia, on the other hand, has few trade agreements, generally protectionist trade policies, and has pursued other Atlantic outreach (e.g. Brazil with African countries) generally through bilateral efforts. This session will look at the factors that contribute to this discrepancy, how they may evolve in the future, and geopolitical consequences.

Guiding Questions

• What historic, strategic, economic, and cultural factors may help explain different dynamics in Atlantic and Pacific integration?
• Does strong traditional integration architecture in the North Atlantic inhibit or facilitate integration in the wider Atlantic?
• To what extent do calculations about China’s economic strength serve as catalysts for wider Pacific integration, and is there an Atlantic corollary?
• Some conventional narratives point to Mercosur, and Brazil's trade agenda in particular, as impediments to wider Atlantic integration. But are European and North American policies also at fault?
• What trends augur for a stronger African role as a catalyst for wider Atlantic integration?
• Viewed from the Atlantic South, what are likely to be the most significant strategic incentives for wider Atlantic integration over the next two decades?

 

Stopping Organized Crime at Sea: A Wider Atlantic Conundrum

Globalization is changing the strategic environment of the 21^st century. Accordingly, the importance of the maritime domain is ever increasing. As a result of more economic activity and growing populations — especially in the South Atlantic — illegal activities on the ocean have increased and bring with them maritime security challenges, ranging from piracy to trafficking in drugs, weapons and people. Maritime security is in the interest of all the continents surrounding the Atlantic Basin — both North and South — since lawlessness at sea directly affects security on land.

The traffic of drugs, weapons, and people from Latin America to Europe and North America, through transit countries in the Caribbean, Central America, and West Africa mostly by sea routes, has grown money laundering dramatically. Its interactions with the global financial and economic crises are posing an increasing danger to global economic stability. Trafficking across the South Atlantic Ocean is directly linked to criminal activities in the Gulf of Guinea, the source of 5.4 million barrels of oil a day. Armed robberies, hijackings, cargo theft, and terrorism on critical infrastructure prevent the region from spurring development by maintaining open trade routes. Instead, many countries are in a permanent state of instability, facing high levels of corruption and the erosion of state authority.

In order for governments to rise to these cross-regional challenges, they will need to be able to monitor what is happening on the seas, detect illegal activities, and develop legal and administrative frameworks, as well as adequate coastguard capabilities.

Guiding Questions

• Which policy and legal tools are we missing to stop impunity on high seas? How can we reinforce the current enforcement capacity? What constitutes a long-term and sustainable response to the challenge of maritime insecurity?
• What priorities should there be for international bodies to better promote maritime governance and security, and to enforce links between law enforcement, (inter)national security and financial intelligence services?
• Do we have the right international platforms involving Europe, Africa, and the Americas within which ideas on ocean governance and maritime policy can be shared and implemented?
• Is there a coordinated effort between countries of the North and South Atlantic to address systemic economic and social factors that cause maritime crime?

 

New Energy Dynamics in the Atlantic Basin

New energy production and investment flows are dramatically changing the energy landscape in the Atlantic Basin. From new oil and gas exploration to booming renewable energy installations and cutting-edge business models, the four Atlantic continents are turning to the energy sector to drive their economic development.

The United States, after years of ever increasing energy imports, is on a path to compete with production giants such as Russia and Saudi Arabia largely due to the technological breakthrough known as hydraulic fracturing. Elsewhere in North America, comprehensive energy reform in Mexico will significantly increase the country’s production of oil and gas in addition to laying a foundation for a future economy powered by renewable energy resources. These emerging dynamics reaffirm that a vibrant and well-functioning energy sector remains an essential component of realizing economic prosperity.

The goal of accessing secure, affordable, and sustainable energy is driving innovation in Africa. Six out of ten of the fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa, yet nearly 550 million people on the continent still lack access electricity. International development aid has focused on improving electrification rates by supporting small, “off-grid” renewable energy systems, and entrepreneurs are bringing affordable payment structures to new electricity consumers. The innovative application of new technologies and new business models in Africa are important case studies for other countries in the wider Atlantic Basin grappling with the unfamiliar demands of an increasingly decentralized power sector driven by growing shares of renewable energy.

This panel will discuss how new sources of energy, new technologies, and new investment opportunities are being harnessed to support economic prosperity in the wider Atlantic Basin. Panelists will explore how these dynamics are fundamentally influencing both political and economic relationships throughout the region.

Guiding Questions

• How are new energy developments reshaping political and economic dynamics in the Atlantic Basin?
• What new investment opportunities are being driven by these changes? Who are the big winners?
• How are countries navigating the complexities of delivering both a secure and sustainable energy sector?
• What role will South-South cooperation play in driving innovation in the energy sector? Will future energy policy be driven by lessons learned from the Southern Atlantic Basin to their Northern partners?

 

Leveraging Demographic Change for Growth and Innovation

The world’s population is expected to reach over 9 billion by 2050, stressing existing systems and resources. While low fertility and longer life spans shift the financial burden for social services to a shrinking percentage of the workforce in high income countries, a burgeoning young population is moving to cities at a rapidly increasing rate in much of the rest of the world. As people around the globe choose or are forced to move, countries, regions, and cities must constantly adapt to new demographic realities, whether through the loss or gain of populations. Current population growth, coupled with the wide-scale movement of people both internationally (across borders and regions) and within countries (between urban and rural areas), presents significant opportunities and challenges for leaders across sectors.

Guiding Questions

• In this context, which policies and strategies serve countries best to gain the economic and societal benefits of demographic change?
• How can the energies and talents of an increasingly youthful and urbanized global population be leveraged for the common good?
• What are some of the most innovative leadership examples and cross-sector collaborations in the wider Atlantic that can be transferred and scaled up?
• How can the opportunities offered by demographic change be most effectively communicated to decision-makers and the wider public?