Trade, migration, technology and political cooperation connect societies across borders. These connections can strengthen cooperation and help societies adapt to change. But connectivity can also create new dependencies and vulnerabilities.

SCRIPTS explores this tension through a simple question: When does connectivity strengthen the resilience of the liberal script - and when does it challenge it?

Together with international partners, we approach this question from different regional perspectives. We want to understand how societies experience connectivity, how they respond to its opportunities and vulnerabilities, and what these experiences can tell us about the resilience of the liberal script.

Connectivity is more than physical infrastructure or international trade. It encompasses the links that allow actors, institutions and societies to interact, cooperate and respond to change.

These connections can support openness, exchange and adaptation. At the same time, they can produce dependencies and vulnerabilities.

We explore this connectivity paradox across three dimensions:

GEOPOLITICS & GEOECONOMY Trade, financial ties and strategic relationships connect countries and regions. They enable exchange and cooperation, but can also create dependencies and vulnerabilities in times of geopolitical change.

SOCIETY Migration, mobility and demographic change connect people and transform societies. They also shape questions of belonging, inequality, diversity and social cohesion. These processes shape questions of belonging, inequality, diversity and social cohesion.

TECHNOLOGY Digital infrastructures, innovation and technological exchange create new forms of connectivity. They facilitate communication and cooperation, while also generating new technological dependencies.

Across all three dimensions, the core issue is the same: connectivity can be and enable resilience - but it can also become a source of vulnerability.