It is within our power to provide an opportunity-rich childhood for all In 1941 President Franklin Roosevelt delivered his famous Four Freedoms speech. In that speech Roosevelt proposed that all Americans should be granted the freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. In his new book, The Fifth Freedom, senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York David Erickson makes the case for the freedom to an open future. The status quo in the United States is unfair and expensive. We spend too much on downstream consequences of people living in poverty rather than spending money on the upstream conditions that would guarantee an opportunity-rich childhood for all. A strong foundation in childhood is the best predictor of a healthy and productive adulthood. A commitment to the fifth freedom would save trillions on avoided chronic disease, incarceration, educational failures, and lost productivity. The Fifth Freedom calls for place-based institutions that support growth and development—good schools, well-funded libraries, safe streets and public spaces, quality health care, spiritual homes, and well-functioning transportation that puts other essential amenities in reach, especially jobs—that work in concert with individual interventions—tutoring, counseling, and coaching. Not providing children with the resources they need is more expensive than reacting the negative consequences of not having them.

Broadly interdisciplinary, 'The Fifth Freedom' sheds new light on the role of parties, elites, and institutions in the policymaking process; the impact of racial politics on electoral realignment; the history of civil rights; the decline of New Deal liberalism; and the rise of the New Right.

There is an outstanding window of opportunity to place the Nordic and Baltic Sea countries at the forefront of knowledge infrastructure for science and innovation. By fully mobilizing research, education, training, and innovation through the next generation information and communication technology (ICT), all countries involved are well-prepared to fulfill their economic, social, and environmental ambitions. The long-term benefits from leading the accelerating globalization of research and to lead the exploitation of disruptive technologies can hardly be overestimated. The knowledge infrastructure is the foundation for the effective realization of the free movement of knowledge - proposed by the European Union as the Fifth Freedom complementing the free movement of goods, capital, services, and persons. Fundamental to the Fifth Freedom are effective knowledge-sharing, well-coordinated research programs, mobility of competent researchers, and world-class research infrastructures.