The technologies that increasingly determine national security are being developed not only by governments but by private companies and universities. This creates a dilemma for liberal democracies like Japan: How can governments secure strategically important technologies without undermining the autonomy and innovation of the private sector? Investment in dual-use technologies — those with both civilian and military applications — is increasingly seen as an efficient way for states to acquire critical capabilities.
But because these technologies are often developed outside government, securing them requires more than technological capacity. It requires a way to govern dispersed capabilities without stifling them. This is the challenge of technology sovereignty.
Countries increasingly speak of AI sovereignty, digital sovereignty and data sovereignty. Technology sovereignty provides a broader framework for understanding these efforts. State sovereignty has two dimensions: external autonomy and internal governance.
Both are relevant to technology sovereignty, but the concepts are not equivalent. State sovereignty is grounded in legal rights, while its practical substance is shaped by relations among states. Technology sovereignty is primarily a question of capacity: whether a state can secure the technologies it considers strategically important and exercise meaningful control over their supply and use.
Unlike traditional sovereignty, technology sovereignty also requires attention to private actors — corporations, startups and universities. The challenge is to aggregate these dispersed domestic capabilities while preserving the conditions that allow them to innovate. Technological autarky is no longer realistic.
States are embedded in international technology networks, making the question not whether they can achieve complete independence but how much strategic autonomy they require. Autonomy and security do not always point in the same direction. Reducing dependence on states of concern, such as China, can strengthen both.
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