Digital Sovereignty: New Type Of State Power Or A Frenemy?

Abstract

Digital sovereignty is one of the contemporary trends for governments to either gain dominance or preserve their positions in the international arena. While offering various attractive benefits from a purely governmental perspective such as fighting against unfair competitive advantages of big tech companies, reinforcing law enforcement and attaining economic objectives, data localization also brings along critical disadvantages such as vulnerabilities in terms of data security and obstacles against innovation, international transactions and provision of services. Policy makers should diligently evaluate the pros and cons of restricting free flow of data in an era of ever-increasing digitalized services so as to mitigate the risks associated with limiting data residency requirements. To this end, security concerns need to be addressed, bilateral or multilateral agreements on globally recognized set of rules should be established, and an international body