Tech Diplomacy and Tech Governance

With technology becoming the frontline of geopolitical competition and control, this chapter explores the emerging discussion on the shape of technological governance in the context of an accelerating rivalry between democracies and autocracies. With restrictions on access to technology rising and regulations implemented that reflect starkly different appreciations of technology’s use in society and a “renationalization” occurring in the West and in China, where even opensource code is actively being replaced by national solutions in a desire for sovereignty, the “Balkanization” of digital ecosystems is occurring. The Western response has been at once to increase bilateral and minilateral cooperation, which might lead to the creation of a “democracy-led” digital tech and regulatory space, providing existing barriers are addressed.