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.