Traditional state actors play a dominant role in international society as security providers, regulators and tax collectors. Yet their dominance is being questioned under the influence of the profound digital transformation underway. Security, economic growth, education and healthcare are policy areas in which the governance role is shifting from the traditional government to a more complex mix of multiple policy-determining actors. In order to unpack these new dynamics, the Brussels School of Governance (BSoG) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), in association with the United Nations University Institute on Comparative and Regional Studies (UNU-CRIS), has set up a Research Chair on Digital Sovereignty, which will be embedded in the BSoG’s Centre for Digitalisation, Democracy and Innovation (CD2I). Through fundamental scientific, interdisciplinary and independent research, this new Chair will contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between state and non-state actors in the new world order. It will explore the emerging and diverse meanings of sovereignty in the 21st Century, focusing on the role of technology in influencing and effecting change in political institutions.
The Research Chair on Digital Sovereignty was established in July 2021 with Microsoft as an initial partner. We are adding additional partners from different stakeholder groups, and are currently establishing an advisory board for the Chair. Chair holder Prof. Dr. Jamal Shahin works at the Brussels School of Governance, where he is Assistant Professor as well as Programme Director of the Advanced Master in European Integration. He is also a Senior Lecturer at the University of Amsterdam and Professorial Fellow at the UNU-CRIS in Bruges, where he leads the research cluster on Digital Governance. He holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Hull (2005).
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