This article is the English version of Anu Bradford, « Comment la technologie redessine l’ordre mondial », published in Politique étrangère (Vol. 91, No. 2, 2026) which celebrates the journal’s 90th anniversary.

Today’s leading technology companies exercise vast influence over the world order. Their outsized economic, political, informational, and cultural power shapes societies and the lives of individuals. Prominent scholars and policy analysts have described these tech firms as “new governors” that exercise novel forms of sovereignty in a world that is no longer unipolar, bipolar, or multipolar but rather “technopolar”.

Tech companies have their own agendas, driven by the desire to maximize profits for their shareholders. But they have also become central assets for governments seeking to grow their economies and protect their key geopolitical interests. Economic growth increasingly depends on technological innovations. Tech firms are also building technologies that are foundational to countries’ economic and national security. This explains governments’ hesitation to rein in these companies’ power and reassert their control over the digital economy. […]

Read the rest of the article here.

Find the table of contents for the anniversary issue (No. 2/2026) of Politique étrangère here.

>>> More articles of Politique étrangère are available for reading on Cairn International. <<<