2024/12/31 by Luca Belli, Min Jiang · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies #Security, Politics, and Digital Transformation #Social Media and Politics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/9781009531085.014
openalex publication_date 2024/12/31 · openalex created_date 2024/12/31 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14
Digital sovereignty is a fluid and complex concept. This chapter highlights the necessity to consider digital sovereignty strategies, policies, and governance mechanisms from a holistic and long-term perspective. Digital sovereignty plays a pivotal role in fostering self-determination, while remaining critical to cybersecurity and the control capabilities of the “digital sovereign.” The “sovereign” can be an individual, a community, a corporation, a state, or a group of states. Taking an agnostic approach to digital sovereignty, the authors explore diverse practices and provide insight into what this concept means in practical terms. Digital technologies can facilitate enormous advancements to be put at the service of people, but can also be weaponized against individuals, corporations, and nation-states. BRICS countries’ approaches offer telling examples of not only how and why the need for digital sovereignty can emerge but also how dysfunctional the implementation of digital sovereignty policies may become without a coherent and long-term vision. Ultimately BRICS experiences illustrate that enhancing a digital sovereign’s self-determination, cybersecurity, and control is likely to reduce the undue influence of other digital actors. However, the success of a digital sovereignty strategy largely depends on the understanding, consistency, resourcefulness, and, ultimately, organizational capabilities of aspiring digital sovereigns.