Digital Sovereignty
The expression “digital sovereignty” seems to refer to the capacity of States to ensure that their rules are respected by the various actors in the online world. In this respect, this notion expresses the difficulties that States sometimes face in exercising their traditional functions in the face of powerful transnational actors with an indisputable technological lead. These difficulties are all the more important as States are sometimes dependent on these actors, because they need technological services (such as cloud computing) to perform their public functions. Thus, the expression “digital sovereignty” unquestionably has a legal aspect, since it refers to the prerogatives of the State and its ability to regulate contemporary technological giants. But it also has an economic and industrial aspect, in that it reflects the need to catch up with a technological gap that places Europe and France in a situation of dependence.
This thematic dossier is therefore dedicated to the different aspects of digital sovereignty, which concern both the exercise of state prerogatives in cyberspace and the question of technological independence, also known as “strategic autonomy”. This dossier also deals with the issue of “data sovereignty”, which refers to the need to maintain control over data as a form of strategic asset.
Additional contributions are available on the French version of this page.
17 November 2022
While the notion of “digital sovereignty” is mostly used in Europe as a synonym for the concept of “strategic autonomy”, […]
20 October 2022
by Tamian Derivry What is the so-called “Sovereign Internet law”? It is a law passed in 2019 by the Duma […]
24 May 2022
This updated version of the Research Paper contains major revisions incorporating several recent changes including references to Meta, Elon Musk’s […]
9 May 2022
On 7th April 2022, Florence G’sell, Directior of the Digital, Governance and Sovereignty Chair took part in the event “Is Europe […]
1 March 2022
by Florence G’sell 1/ Does Russia have the technical means to exercise complete sovereign power over its telecommunications network, and […]
23 September 2021
Following the publication of his research paper entitled “The power of digital platforms, territories and sovereignty“, Dominique Boullier, university professor […]
9 June 2021
On May 17th, the Chair hosted Sarah Guillou for a webinar presenting her policy brief (FRENCH) entitled “French digital sovereignty […]
9 June 2021
Article translated in English, to see the original version in French click here : “Western governments seem to ask more […]
22 December 2020
What are the economic factors that support the digital sovereignty of a country? Are the “digital champions” really essential for […]
13 August 2020
by Rachel Griffin Long before the pandemic, big tech companies provided much of the vital infrastructure for the world economy, […]
13 August 2020
Nicola Bilotta is currently a researcher at the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), where he works on international political economy, digital […]
3 February 2020
On November 20, 2019, the Chair Digital, Governance and Sovereignty held its annual conference hosted by the Sciences Po Paris […]
