During the past year and a half, I worked in Kyiv at the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation. The war forced us to accelerate. The Ministry enabled drone tech start-ups to launch in a week and simplified procurement to buy the drones.
Today, this formula is being expanded to other sectors. Ukrainians use their phones to identify themselves with an encrypted, safe passport, allowing authentication to anyone entering an office building. Victims of bombing attacks receive rebuilding funds over the phone, allowing them to buy construction services or materials. In one year, the government has distributed $280 million to about 86,000 applicants.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been privileged to participate in closed-door, Chatham House rule strategy sessions with tech titans and policy architects. Where European debates often kick off with discussions on regulations — both their merits and drawbacks — American thought leaders and tech innovators go straight to how to maintain their edge in the race against China. Their focus is on ensuring that global tech remains rooted in and controlled by democratic values — a crucial consideration given that technology is rapidly becoming our future utility.
This stark contrast mirrors the observations from my exploration of Ukraine’s digital resilience. While Ukraine demonstrated the power of citizen-centric digital services in maintaining societal cohesion under extreme duress, we now see a broad pattern emerging: a divide between those who prioritize processes, procedures, and regulations and those who focus on innovation and competitiveness. Paraphrasing the thoughts expressed by a leading participant: “I spent years and years speaking of climate change while Elon Musk just built the electric cars.”
“Everything is AI” echoes from tech hubs worldwide. Americans are eager to explore new ideas and boost capabilities, while Europeans often initiate discussions with regulatory concerns. The Global South, meanwhile, has an opportunity to leapfrog into AI adoption.
This global AI fervor brings to mind many examples in Ukraine which are automatization and AI driven be it military battles or civilian services to citizens. While AI now promises to revolutionize service delivery and decision-making processes globally, the foundations for this AI-driven future are not evenly distributed.
The bedrock of AI capabilities lies in large training modules and physical infrastructure capable of training models like ChatGPT and LLaMA.
This distribution of AI capabilities echoes the digital divide. Just as Ukraine’s investment in digital infrastructure proved crucial for its resilience, the global distribution of AI foundations and training modules may determine future technological sovereignty and resilience.
The set-up of large data centers, the backbone of our AI-driven future, requires substantial financial investment, political stability, and vast amounts of energy. The tech race amplifies the need for affordable green energy, with estimates suggesting that the current energy supply can sustain AI development for only nearly a decade.
This energy challenge draws parallels to the way Ukraine had to ensure the resilience of its digital services even during power outages caused by attacks on its infrastructure. The global tech race now faces a similar challenge on a larger scale, highlighting the intricate link between energy policy and technological advancement.
“Competitiveness” has emerged as the term of the month in Europe. While the US vs. China tech rivalry presents clear objectives, Europe grapples with the concept of sovereignty. Europe aims to participate in the global race, but in practice, member states often compete among themselves, then against the US, and only later, if at all, on a worldwide scale.
This fragmentation contrasts with Ukraine’s unified approach to digital resilience. A cohesive strategy that aligns national interests with technological advancement can yield remarkable results. Europe may need to draw lessons from Ukraine’s playbook to enhance its global competitiveness.
The concept of war is becoming global — less about specifics such as Russia’s war in Ukraine and more about democracies maintaining their technological edge. The defense sector features in all debates about technology and innovation. Ukraine’s digital resilience has become a crucial component of its national defense.
Just as Ukraine’s experience offers valuable lessons for defense tech and digital governance, the broad region now has the potential to translate the lessons. Central and Eastern Europe is moving from the periphery to a potential tech hub. While this attention is unfortunately due to the ongoing war in its neighborhood, it presents an opportunity for the region to establish itself as a hub for security and defense technologies. Poland is taking a leading role, but the potential extends across the region.
Ukraine’s example represents a living example of what can be achieved when necessity drives innovation. As the global tech race intensifies, nations, companies, and regions must find synergies to ensure that the future world driven by tech rests on democratic values.
Ieva Ilves has more than two decades of experience in digital transformation, cybersecurity, and international affairs. Her career spans high-level roles in Latvia, Estonia, and internationally, including as Digital Policy Advisor to Latvia’s President. She led Latvia’s first national cybersecurity strategy and the project to establish NATO’s Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence in Riga. She advises Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation and WithSecure, a Finnish cybersecurity company. She has a master’s from Johns Hopkins University SAIS.
Bandwidth is CEPA’s online journal dedicated to advancing transatlantic cooperation on tech policy. All opinions expressed on Bandwidth are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.
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