CPH Tech Policy Brief #9
The digital vulnerability paradox: How technology shaped geopolitics
The rapid advancement of digital technologies and infrastructures, deployed for both civilian and military purposes, is reshaping the landscape of international politics.
Digital technologies now play a central role in the political, economic, and military competition between nations, influencing the relationships between states, markets, and civil societies.
In this CPH Tech Policy Brief, Professor Rebecca Adler-Nissen and researcher Tobias Liebetrau examine how these developments give rise to a digital vulnerability paradox, where digital technologies simultaneously strengthen and undermine democracies.
They then explore the implications of this paradox by introducing three key hypotheses on the geopolitical significance of digitalization:
Hypothesis 1: Digital technologies are a double-edged sword for rights-based democracies across the world.
Hypothesis 2: Digital technology is crucial for the future security and military battlefield.
Hypothesis 3: Big technology companies take over roles and tasks of the state.