Current topics
What keeps us awake
Thanks to their expertise, Itinera fellows are frequently invited to share their insights on current issues in the media and are also in regular contact with policymakers.
In addition to this quasi-permanent activity, we are constantly working on several major topics in which we approach a specific theme from various angles and draw on our different areas of expertise.
These topics go beyond the concrete issues of the day, but are nevertheless topical in our society.
Topic
Simplify Belgium
Belgium is stuck in a tangle of rules, powers and procedures that block each other. Administrative complexity, not because of one wrong choice, but because of years of accumulation without fundamental redesign. The system is creaking in more and more places.
Simplicity is not always better, and complex societies sometimes require complex solutions. Nevertheless, good policy is often much simpler in practice than what exists today.
With Simplify Belgium, we formulate clear analyses and concrete proposals across policy areas, built on clear principles and conscious choices. With a focus on results, not on procedures, resources or technologies. In this way, Simplify Belgium wants to be a clear point of contact for policymakers.
We also want to make Belgium understandable again. Because citizens and businesses are losing sight of the big picture and are longing for clarity and predictability. We do this by explaining complex matters clearly, without unnecessary jargon. Because policies that are not understandable lose support.
Simplification is not an end in itself, but a lever to work together to ensure that Belgium can do better.
Topic
Project Hope
In times of increasing social uncertainty, geopolitical instability and social pressure, young people increasingly feel that their future is under threat. Climate anxiety, mental health problems, social inequality and economic uncertainty are not abstract issues for many, but everyday reality. Optimism about progress in society is visibly disappearing, not least among younger generations.
But young people are not a policy afterthought. They are the future and deserve policies that treat them as such.
With HOPE, we want to empower young people by giving them a voice and a place to contribute ideas for solutions – together with experts, role models and policymakers. It will be a broad dialogue, within a process that will continue throughout the year. Because the coming generations must help determine the direction.
Read more
Topic
Resilient society and economy
Belgium combines an exceptional geopolitical position with structural vulnerabilities. As host country to NATO and the European Union, as the port of Europe and as a hub for critical financial infrastructure, our country is both an attractive target and a strategic asset. This paradox is central to Itinera's work on resilience. In a Europe confronted with hybrid threats, defence challenges and economic shocks, reactive policies are no longer sufficient. Itinera analyses how Belgium can transform its institutional complexity, financial constraints and fragmented security governance into a coherent strategy, one that considers defence, economic resilience and social resilience to be inextricably linked. The key question is not how much a society spends in times of crisis, but how it invests in its own continuity.
Topic
Healthcare 2040
In order to safeguard its sustainability, quality and accessibility, our healthcare system will need to undergo fundamental reform in the coming years. After all, international scientific literature repeatedly exposes a considerable degree of inefficiency in complex healthcare systems: around 20% to 40% of expenditure does not yield proportional health gains.
The reasons? Over-treatment, fragmentation of care, administrative burdens and suboptimal organisation of care processes. The first focus must therefore be to clearly define and analyse this waste and identify realistic efficiency gains and savings potential.
Itinera is planning a large-scale event with international speakers and Belgian experts as a catalyst for debate and policy reflection. By translating international experiences to the Belgian context, we can chart a strategic reform path that goes beyond incremental adjustments.
We will compile the insights we gain in this way in a publication with concrete lessons learned, to guide policymakers and stakeholders in shaping a future-proof healthcare system.
Topic
A strong Europe
The era of globalisation is over. War, competition between superpowers and nationalism are back. The economy is no longer neutral for markets, companies or entrepreneurs. Geocapitalism marks an era in which economic development is shaped — and limited — by geopolitics.
The era of geo-economics is based on hard power and national emotions. States are resuming their role as economic planners, protectors and strategists. Trade is becoming security, capital is being politicised, technology is being weaponised. Supply chains are becoming instruments of power. Markets no longer float above politics; they are embedded in it.
In both democratic and authoritarian countries, sovereignty, resilience and dominance are increasingly determining the economic course. Capitalism is no longer shielded from geopolitics. It merges with it, becomes subordinate to it, is absorbed into it or mobilised for it. Companies are drawn into geopolitical competition — as national champions, strategic assets or vulnerable links.
Globalisation promised that economics would tame geopolitics.
Geocapitalism begins where geopolitics tames economics.
