There are only a few days left until Horizons Forum 2026, an international event that will bring together global leaders, investors, companies, institutions, technological innovators and experts in Belgrade. In two days, 18th and 19. In June, the Forum will open discussions on sustainability, capital, infrastructure, energy, artificial intelligence, the future of finance and new models of connecting Europe, China and Asia. Join world’s leading experts, decision-makers and business leaders and be part of the event that connects Europe, China and Asia in Belgrade. Participation is free, with compulsory registration. Due to the high profile of the event and limited capacity, all applications are subject to confirmation by the organizers. Register: scforum2026.com

Applications are open until June 10.

Be part of Horizons Forum! This June, Belgrade becomes a bridge between China and Europe. We are looking for motivated students and young professionals to join the organizational and media volunteer teams of the Horizons | Sustainability and Connectivity Forum. We welcome volunteers with strong English skills, team spirit, motivation, and an interest in international cooperation, global events, communications, and social media. Apply now: scforum2026.com/volunteers

From Serbia to the world. For the past 12 years, the Belgrade-based Horizons — Journal of International Relations and Sustainable Development — has brought together some of the world’s leading thinkers and decision-makers, creating a unique space for uncensored dialogue on politics, economics, technology, diplomacy and the future of the global order.

On June 18–19, Belgrade will become a meeting point for global leaders, investors, technology innovators, and decision-makers from around the world. The Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development (CIRSD), in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, is organizing the international Horizons Forum on Sustainability and Connectivity, which will take place at the Sava Center. The Forum will address some of the most pressing issues shaping the future of the global economy, including sustainability, investment, technology, energy, artificial intelligence, and emerging models of cooperation between Europe, China, and Asia. The distinguished lineup of speakers includes Jeffrey Sachs, Stella Li of BYD, Zhang Chuanwei of Ming Yang Smart Energy, Kai-Fu Lee of 01 . AI, David Gorodyansky, Thierry de Montbrial, Lars-Hendrik Röller, and Huiyao Wang, alongside representatives of international financial institutions, investment funds, leading global companies, and academia. Horizons Forum aims to position Belgrade as one of the key annual gathering places for discussions on sustainable development, technological transformation, and the future of global cooperation. For more information, visit: scforum2026.com

AI is sold as weightless code. It is, in fact, one of the most physically ravenous technologies ever built, consuming the electricity of Japan today and on track to double that by 2030. It draws on cobalt from the Congo, chips from Taiwan, and discards its waste in Ghana. Silvana Koch-Mehrin, Founder and President of Women Political Leaders, argues that between America’s tech oligarchy and China’s state control, Europe is the only actor treating AI as the infrastructure it actually is. The future of AI’s environmental footprint, she contends, will not be decided in Silicon Valley or Beijing, but in Brussels.

A decade ago, China made generics and copies. Today, Pfizer's CEO Albert Bourla warns that "every drug could be made in China," U.S. firms are signing record-shattering licensing deals with Chinese biotechs, and a single Chinese antibody has beaten Keytruda head-to-head in a Phase 3 trial. Yanzhong Huang, Senior Fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations, traces how a state-orchestrated regulatory overhaul, a 1.4-billion-person clinical trial advantage, and the sheer scale of biotech parks like Suzhou's BioBAY rewrote the global pharmaceutical map. The harder question is whether Washington's tariff-and-restrict response is protecting American leadership or accelerating its decline. Read the full article: cirsd.org/horizon-article/a-…

Past energy shocks have always reshaped the world that followed them, and Henning Gloystein, Managing Director for Energy & Resources at Eurasia Group, argues this one will be no different—only larger. From Tokyo’s nuclear restarts to Berlin’s miscalculation on gas, from India’s coal dilemma to the UK’s return to the North Sea, every major economy is now confronting decisions it had hoped to defer. The knee-jerk responses will fade. The deeper restructuring, he warns, will not. Read the full article: cirsd.org/horizon-article/no…

Climate change does not pause for geopolitics, and the physical laws governing the atmosphere recognize no electoral cycles. Zhang Chuanwei, Founder and Chairman of Ming Yang Smart Energy Group, argues that energy security and energy transition are not rival priorities but mutually reinforcing ones, and that the renewable revolution has crossed from policy aspiration to commercial logic. Drawing on Ming Yang’s evolution into one of the world’s 3 largest wind turbine manufacturers, he sets out a vision of smart energy whose reach now extends across the planet. Read the full article: cirsd.org/horizon-article/dr…

Three forces are now colliding to remake the world economy at its foundations: a globalization redrawn around the “Global Majority,” technologies that turn platforms into planners, and a demographic squeeze that breaks the post-war growth model. Maxim Oreshkin maps a new paradigm in which connector countries become strategic actors, algorithms quietly displace markets, and “fiscal cannibalism” forces aging societies to choose between the elderly and the future. The lasting question, he argues, is whether human beings remain independent decision-makers, or become managed participants in systems they no longer see. Read the full article: cirsd.org/horizon-article/me…