Formation of Digital Society and Geopolitical Competition

The article discusses the growing interdependence between the geopolitical competition of great powers and the development of digital technologies. Throughout the 2010s, the contradictions of the leading states regarding the control and regulation of the Internet have noticeably intensified. In the absence of universal rules for information security, the Internet is evolving towards a kind of “gray zone” in which various actors can use the wide range of available tools to achieve their political or other goals without fear of being drawn into a full-scale conflict. Nowadays, the geopolitical rivalry, primarily between the United States and China, covers a wide range of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence. It is highly likely that during the 2020s, China and the United States will create two competing and increasingly less compatible global ecosystems for the development of the Internet of things, big data processing technologies, 5 G mobile communications, additive technologies, robotics, etc. The choice of one of the ecosystems will at the same time become a geopolitical choice, which, obviously, during the next decade all state actors in the system of international relations will have to make.