Digital Sovereignty in the Time of War

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

The concept of digital sovereignty has emerged over the last decade in response to the critical importance that digital infrastructures have acquired for states. The emergence of this term in the political agenda across the globe also reflects the specific challenges posed by the economic and legal governance of the Internet, platforms and Big Tech. The Internet is no longer seen as a unified space, free of national borders and tensions, but as an arena for ideological and economic competition, as well as for the protection and empowerment of sovereign nations. In the context of war, issues of cybersecurity, disinformation and foreign interference have exacerbated these challenges, making the digital sphere one of the central concerns of political authorities in Europe. In Russia, Western sanctions and information warfare have stimulated the tightening of political control over the digital sphere and the activation of import substitution policies. On the other hand, new forms of digital self-assertion have emerged in Ukraine, Moldova and the Baltic states following the breakaway from Russian networks, aligning themselves with European regulations and challenging the autonomy of the local internet in the face of dominant international players. This panel will address these various issues related to the impact of war on digital governance and imaginaries of statehood in the former Soviet space in a rapidly changing global context.

Sub Unit

• Cinema, Television, Electronic Media

Chair

• Stanislav Budnitsky, Colgate University

Papers

• Digital Sovereignty and Authoritarian Diffusion: A Comparative Analysis of Russian and European Internet Imaginaries - Gregory Asmolov, King's College London (UK)

• Sanctions, Sovereignty, Surveillance: How War in Ukraine Reshapes the Infrastructures of Russian Internet - Ksenia Ermoshina, CNRS / Citizen Lab (France)

• Bringing the 'Digital Periphery' back to the Centre?: Ukraine and Moldova between Russia and the EU after 2022 - Françoise Daucé, EHESS (France)

• Digital and Technological Sovereignty of Emerging Powers with Some Industrial Capabilities: Russia's Cooperation with the Global South Since the Beginning of its War Against Ukraine - Ewa Aleksandra Dabrowska, Freie U Berlin (Germany)

Discussant

• Stanislav Budnitsky, Colgate University