What's worse than seeing, or loving, a mutilated body in Bucha, Ukraine? Sadly, it's the prospect of millions of people starving to death because of the food supply disruptions and price spikes caused by Russia's invasion. More than a billion people in dozens of countries will be at risk in coming months. Lawrence Haddad, executive director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, explains that our food system is a "house of cards" but it's possible to make it more resilient for little investment. INTERVIEW — "THE NEW GEOPOLITICAL SUPPLY CHAIN" Thierry Breton 's job at the European Commission is to develop and regulate the EU's internal market — but it's a role that has taken him in many unexpected directions. This week he's been in Washington to wish farewell to his departing American vaccine partner Jeff Zients. Why? Because it was Breton who took charge of the EU's Covid vaccine rollout after a bungled start. Now he's working to apply the lessons of securing vaccine supply chains to a wider set of challenges: what he calls "the new geopolitical supply chain." Over a decided un-French power lunch near the Capitol — 45 minutes, no wine — Breton was a whirlwind of energy. In the telling of this former tech CEO (of the 110,000-strong consulting firm Atos), he's helped birth everything from the EU's new joint defense fund to the much vaunted transatlantic Trade and Technology Council. Breton told Global Insider the TTC was an idea he cooked up with the EU's then Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan to deflect a raging former President Donald Trump at a 2020 meeting in Davos. "I am very pragmatic, I am not a dreamer," he insisted. But that's not strictly true: It was Breton's fired-up imagination that delivered the first-ever novel about cyber warfare, back in 1984. Soft War sold more than two million copies , a surprise even to the ambitious author, then a 28 year-old computer scientist. "It was the first book ever about a computer virus, I called it a soft bomb. It was still the Cold War and it told how a virus could plug into Soviet Union computer systems, and blow up the Soviet regime." Four decades later, cybersecurity still keeps him up at night: Breton's latest effort to ward off digital demons is a project creating a European "cybershield" supported by around 5,000 specialists. The point is to spread the best efforts of Europe's strongest cyber defenders to its weakest ones. "The U.S. needs a strong Europe (in order) to have a strong partner," he said. "We take action to protect our borders, and we need to show the same willingness to protect our cyber borders." Will the world split into regional economic and tech blocs? "It's a risk, but I don't see it happening this way because it will be almost impossible to do everything on our own. Rare earths? They are where they are," he notes. "But the era where we just buy products or components based on lowest cost is over. There are other (non-financial) costs and you must calculate all of them: CO2, child labor, environmental destruction, everything. To put conditions like that on trade is difficult, but it is the only way" to create supply chains that are both resilient and fair," Breton said. Being a net exporter is strength: Breton comes at the issue of exports with a different tone to both Trump and Berlin's elite, but he preaches a similar message. "When you are a net exporter, you enhance your strength and you enhance your position" in global political negotiations, because others depend on you, he believes. Shade for northern Europe: "It's easy to be frugal when you don't have to pay for common defense. Now they're in the 2 percent club (of GDP for defense) they see it is not so easy. Of course they want these payments to not apply when calculating Europe's debt and stability rules. Good luck! Welcome to the club!" His heart lies with quantum technology: "The most important revolution in front of us is the quantum revolution. It's a totally different way of working. It is not linear: It is much more global, everything interconnected. Quantum technologies will produce quantum effects." "You can make models of everything: Let's say you take a picture of a tumor, and you model different aspects of interaction between molecules upfront. The image you make can help you understand exactly (what is going on)." "I want to announce a quantum advisory board by the end of the year. We need to have the infrastructure locally … to carry out quantum encryptions (unhackable) to build quantum sensors. I had a big fight to convince all my fellow European Commissioners, and now the fight is with the Parliament." Myth busting: "I am European. I am not the French commissioner. I have never received an instruction from my country." THE DREAMS AND FEARS OF THE EU'S OTHER TOP TECH REGULATORS Margrethe Vestager , the EU's executive vice president for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age (yes, that's a title), was also in Washington on Thursday. She told Global Insider that the latest set of digital rules for the EU — while aimed at today's tech giants — will have an impact that lasts well into the future. "What's important is that digital markets open up, that there is much more innovation from more diverse sources. We need to see more things getting to market, from innovations rather than acquisitions." The drivers of change: that "the big guy is not self-preferencing in how they provide services" (hello, Google), and that start-ups and users control their data instead of large platforms. Andreas Schwab, meanwhile, the member of the European Parliament who led negotiations with the EU executive on these new rules, told Global Insider that American tech companies need to up their lobbying game if they want more of their approach reflected in the bloc's rules. "Virtually nothing happened," he said about meeting with tech companies on the EU's recent legislative package. "I would say I had one meeting with Apple, maybe two or three with Google. When we met, it was a meeting to say there was a meeting. It was just a form of corporate rejection, not a discussion where you work to achieve something." Facebook "came too late" to make a difference, Schwab said. "They were totally disordered, they were not empowered to act. I said, 'Do you have to speak to your CEO, or what?' and they didn't answer and didn't come up with anything until the very end."
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