IIEA Talks IIEA

'Managing Europe’s under-performing economy'

Lucinda Creighton and Conall Mac Coille in conversation with Dan O'Brien

SMEs are a vital part of Europe’s digital economy and are essential to ensuring Europe’s future prosperity. In his address to the IIEA, Mr Toffaletti provides a SME perspective on developments in digital policy and the digital economy over recent years. He particularly assesses the challenges that SMEs may face in navigating digital regulation and the potential role of digital policy in promoting SMEs. He also assesses the opportunities and challenges ahead for the digital SME sector.

About the Speaker:

Sebastiano Toffaletti holds a Master Degree in Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering from the University of Bologna. He has authored several articles and position papers on topics such as Intellectual Property Rights, Standards, e-Skills, Net Neutrality and Cloud Computing. He is chairman of the Working Group on SMEs at the European Cybersecurity Organisation (ECSO), is a member of the board of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and serves on the EU Multi-stakeholder Platform on ICT Standardisation. He has headed the secretariat of the European DIGITAL SME Alliance since 2008.

In her address, Aoife Barry discusses her book Social Capital: Life Online in the Shadow of Ireland's Tech Boom, which focuses on what she discovered while interviewing people in Ireland about their online behaviour and how they have been treated online, and what this illustrates about the regulatory and legal challenges facing both social media users and tech owners. Aoife discusses how developments since the book’s publication demonstrate how issues around social media and misinformation have only grown, pointing to an uncertain and troubling future for the internet.

About the Speaker:
Aoife Barry is a freelance journalist and broadcaster. Her essays and fiction have been published by Banshee journal, ThiWurd, and Visual Verse, and broadcast on RTÉ’s Sunday Miscellany. Her bylines include The Sunday Times, The Irish Times, The Irish Independent, the Business Post, The Journal and the Irish Examiner. Aoife features regularly on RTÉ and Today FM and has received Agility Award Funding from the Arts Council for a novel in progress and was selected by the Irish Writers Centre for its Evolution Programme 2023.

In this IIEA panel, three experts discusses the conflict in Gaza and its broader implications for the regional stability of the Greater Middle East. As the conflict continues, regional actors in the Arab Gulf and the Levant, have stepped up their activities threatening a widening of the conflict beyond the present battlespace. Meanwhile, global powers have increased their own military activities in the region. Throughout the discussion, this panel explores what the conflict means not only for the Middle East, but also for global politics.

Speakers in this panel include

Rita Sakr, Assistant Professor at Maynooth University
Raphael S. Cohen, Director of the Strategy and Doctrine Program at RAND’s Project AIR FORCE
Marwan Muasher, Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

In Minister Adlercreutz’s view, the long-term success of Europe is being decided now, and Europe must act now. Against the backdrop of a more challenging world, the European elections are fast approaching. As part of the Future-Proofing Europe project, Minister Adlercreutz’s address outlines how Finland seeks to meet these challenges as well as the country’s key priorities: strategic competitiveness, comprehensive security, and promoting a clean ecological transition.

About the Speaker:

Anders Adlercreutz has been the Minister for European Affairs and Ownership Steering of Finland since June 2023. Minister Adlercreutz represents Finland in the EU General Affairs Council and is responsible for the country's Ownership Steering Policy for state-owned companies. First elected to Parliament in 2015, he served as Chair of the Swedish Parliamentary Group from 2019 until 2023. Minister Adlercreutz is an architect by profession and is a partner in an architecture firm in Helsinki.

In his address to the IIEA, Professor Treisman discusses his recent book Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century. He discusses how a new type of authoritarian regime has emerged which is better adapted to ruling sophisticated, globally-connected societies. These authoritarian regimes rely less on violent repression and instead rely more heavily on the manipulation of information. Professor Treisman discusses how strongman leaders use spin and information manipulation to cement their rule – and also explains why they sometimes revert to harsher methods.

About the Speaker:

Daniel Treisman is a Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles, Acting Director of the UCLA Center for European and Russian Studies, and Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is a former editor of The American Political Science Review and he has been a consultant for the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and USAID. His latest book, co-authored with Sergei Guriev, is Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century. The book was listed as one of the “Best Books of 2022” (The New Yorker, Foreign Affairs), “Best Political Books of 2022” (Financial Times), and “Books That Made Us Think in 2022” (The Atlantic, Moment).