June 28, 2022
Toward Digital Solidarity
The coronavirus crisis laid bare governments' dependence on actors beyond their control for vaccines, medical equipment, microchips, and other essential goods. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exacerbated these concerns due to Europe’s heavy reliance on Russian energy. In turn, the pandemic and Russia’s war have helped accelerate many countries’ growing embrace of a form of technological self-sufficiency known as digital sovereignty. Rather than shifting to closed technological ecosystems, policymakers have the opportunity to move toward what could be called digital solidarity, a new policy framework for enhancing economic progress, national security, and other societal interests among open, democratic, and rule-bound societies.
The concept of digital sovereignty started to take root in the 2000s and spread quickly in digital policymaking and business circles over the next several years. Though it is more a malleable political slogan than a policy strategy, digital sovereignty’s meaning can be derived from the concerns expressed by its proponents. They assert the belief that digital technology shapes in fundamental ways an ever-increasing number of significant political, economic, military, and societal trends and outcomes. Therefore, they argue, controlling such technology is critical to defending and promoting the national interest.
The goal of digital solidarity is to enable technological cooperation and interaction that advance collective national interests.
Digital sovereignty has been a rallying cry for and driver of various industrial policy initiatives and technology regulations in the European Union, India, Australia, Canada, and other democratic societies. The Chinese and Russian governments have also used digital sovereignty and similar terms like cyber sovereignty, in their case to argue for and establish barriers between their domestic digital environments and the outside world and to promote abroad internet governance models designed to create closed and restricted ecosystems.
In contrast, digital solidarity is an alternative path to achieving technological self-determination through partnerships and alliances among open, democratic, and rule-bound societies. The goal of digital solidarity is to enable technological cooperation and interaction that advance collective national interests. Its implementation also ensures competition among technology providers to help safeguard any participating country from being locked into a dependent technology relationship with any other nation. Though some European countries have nominally supported this alternative path in public statements, recent events in France and elsewhere in the EU suggest that the direction of travel of many democratic societies’ technological self-determination may veer to a more closed and ultimately unsuccessful ecosystem.
Read the full article from Lawfare.
More from CNAS
-
Shaping the World’s AI Future: How the U.S. and China Compete to Promote Their Digital Visions
Commentary
As the United States navigates evolving global AI competition, balancing these elements will be crucial in determining whose AI systems — and by extension, whose approaches, v...
By Keegan McBride
-
Countering the Digital Silk Road: Brazil
Reports
Project Overview This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Digital Silk Road (DSR), China’s ambitious initiative to shape critical digital infrastructure around the world to...
By Ruby Scanlon & Bill Drexel
-
Promethean Rivalry
Reports
Executive Summary Just as nuclear weapons revolutionized 20th-century geopolitics, artificial intelligence (AI) is primed to transform 21st-century power dynamics—with world l...
By Bill Drexel
-
Trump’s Crackdown on Foreign Students Is a Gift to China
Commentary
When top global talent no longer sees America as a stable, long-term bet — in light of both visa and research funding insecurity — many will vote with their feet....
By Jordan Schneider
