Geopolitical Struggles of the Emerging Global Tech Order (TECHORDER)

This project theorises and explores the emerging ‘global tech order’: the order constructed by the imaginaries, global authority configurations, and rule-making efforts that govern and legitimize digital technology and relationships between states and major technology companies.

The regulation of digital technology is central to the growing geopolitical struggles in global politics, yet we know little about how the major players themselves perceive the key points of contention. The point of departure for TECHORDER is that global tech politics is guided not just by technical expertise, profit motives, or national security concerns, but also by ideas about the transformative potential of digital technologies, which are seen as capable of bringing about both apocalyptic and utopian outcomes. In light of this the project investigates how leaders and employees at major technology companies as well as leaders and officials from key states including the US, China, India, the UK, France, and Germany perceive the technologies, their geopolitical roles and the global power configuration of participants involved in the negotiation of global tech rules.