Speaker Arend Jan Boekestijn

Expert, Europe expert

45 min

NL, EN

Globalization,
Journalism,
National history

Dealing with adversity,
Dealing with change,
Inform

Geopolitics is no longer a distant concept: it directly affects your supply chain, costs and strategy.
Arend Jan Boekestijn shows how dependencies on China, chips and raw materials make your sector vulnerable. A confrontational and concrete lecture about risks, choices and the importance of a Plan B.

We live in a world where crises succeed each other. The energy crisis is obvious and is going to last longer than many people think. Less well known is that we also need critical metals where we are very dependent on China. China can undermine our green transition, defense and industry with the stroke of a pen. Export germanium and gallium are already subject to a licensing system. Through the Strait of Hormuz goes one-third of our helium and we cannot spare that for semiconductor production. To make matters worse, China is also considering a blockade around Taiwan that will prevent TSMC chips from being exported. Mind you 90% of the fastest chips come from TSMC.
In this bleak climate, every sector of our economy has to ask itself:
1. Where do our critical raw materials come from?
2. Where do our chips come from?
3. Do we actually have a Plan B?

Every company today needs geopolitical due diligence. I can take a look at your sector in my lecture. There is severe weather ahead but there are also opportunities. And those opportunities should not be missed.

Arend Jan Boekestijn is a historian and affiliated with Utrecht University, where he specializes in international relations and geopolitics. He studied history and political science at VU University Amsterdam and worked at the European University Institute in Florence, among other places. In addition to his academic career, he was a member of the Lower House for the VVD from 2006 to 2010. He published several books and essays on foreign politics and international relations, and for many years wrote columns for Elsevier and NPO Radio 1.

Boekestijn is also active in various administrative and advisory roles, including within the Advisory Council on International Affairs and the ABP. For a wide audience, he is best known as an interpreter of international politics through radio, television and the popular BNR podcast "Boekestijn en De Wijk," which he co-presents with Rob de Wijk.

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