We must navigate a virtual world which is morphing faster than our understanding of its impact on layered identities and self-determination. In the collision of sovereignty and globalisation over the digital sphere, is responsible and meaningful citizenship impeded or empowered by national laws? Can we apply the same universal human rights from past decades to online spaces, or do we need a new charter of digital rights? What values are implicitly embedded in our current conceptions of digital rights and do they represent the interests of society’s most vulnerable groups? Are algorithms contributing to the ‘flattening’ of identities?

Information technologies have opened up a new battlefront, one which cannot be treated as separate from the four ‘traditional’ dimensions of warfare. Cyber, robotics, AI, and quantum have also confounded older frames of strategic balance. Disinformation campaigns and other forms of social engineering have further blurred the lines between conflict and the daily lives of ordinary civilians. Conflict has never been the sole domain of states, but the scope and depth of harm of future battles must be considered as we develop tools and rules to govern them. Will technology make conflict more efficient or more cruel?

Since time immemorial, those who controlled the routes and channels through which goods and information travelled have held sway over entire peoples and nations, whether through rules, ideologies, or control over strategic assets. The latest iteration of this phenomenon is testament to the complex nature of connectedness today, encompassing data, technology supply chains, digital services, down to the very backbone of the internet that runs under our oceans. What strategies have different geographies embarked on to manoeuver these bottlenecks and dependencies? Are digital public goods essential strategic assets?

For nearly a decade and a half, the International Space Station (ISS) has been a beacon of cooperation against all odds, toward human progress. Russia’s likely exit from the ISS is emblematic of some of the biggest challenges in space governance today. Even as challenges mount—whether they be in the form of space debris, space traffic management, the explosion of new actors including industry players, an arms race, and counter-space capabilities—governance processes have reached a deadlock. Can we instil new energy towards the peaceful and sustainable use of space?