Global structures of digital dependence and the rise of technopoles

Abstract

What are the global structures of digital dependency, and to what extent do the US and China dominate them? How can patterns of digital dependency be understood theoretically and measured empirically? These questions are crucial for both policymakers and academics. Our paper contributes to ongoing debates on the implications of increasing asymmetries and power concentrations driven by digital transformation and the rise of platforms. Building on insights from international relations (IR), international political economy (IPE), and scholarship on (infra)structural dependencies and the weaponisation of interdependence, this article draws on a comprehensive dataset from the Digital Dependence Index (DDI) to offer a framework for mapping and theorising the global structures of digital dependency. Across three dimensions – hardware, platforms and patents – we show that high and increasing levels of digital dependence have emerged, and that the US and China can be characterised as technopoles with significant technological autonomy and great potential to weaponise infrastructure and technologies. Such a structural perspective can be used to further explore and conceptualise the nexus between digital infrastructures, dependency and autonomy on the one hand, and the emergence of a new techno-geopolitical world order on the other.