Asian Review of Political Economy - Call for Papers: Nexus Between Digital Trade and Security: Geopolitical Implications for Global Economy in the Digital Age
Guest editors：
Xuechen Chen, Faculty of Social Science, Northeastern University London, UK
xuechen.chen@nulondon.ac.uk (this opens in a new tab)
Xinchuchu Gao, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Lincoln, UK
XinGao@lincoln.ac.uk (this opens in a new tab)
Jilong Yang, College of International Relations, Huaqiao University, China
yjlbnu@outlook.com (this opens in a new tab)
Chi Zhang, School of International Relations, University of St Andrews, UK
cz38@st-andrews.ac.uk (this opens in a new tab)
This special issue aims to unpack the geopolitical and security aspects of digital trade in light of the swiftly changing landscape of the international trade regime in the digital age. The rapid pace of digital and technological transformation, catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic, has resulted in a sharp increase in the adoption of digital tools and services, showing great potential for international trade through digital delivery. Nevertheless, over the past few years, digital trade has emerged as a new arena for geostrategic and political rivalries, with major international players such as the United States, the European Union, and China developing competing visions and approaches to digital governance in their quest for power and leadership in this field. Specifically, the United States has been at the forefront of advocating for new rules to govern and promote the trade of digital goods and services by negotiating expansive sets of rules on digital trade, exemplified by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) signed in 2018 and the U.S.-Japan Digital Trade Agreement signed in 2019. In recent years, the EU has adopted an increasingly proactive digital trade policy at a global level by developing trade agreements with dedicated digital trade chapters with countries such as Canada, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, Mercosur, and New Zealand. In a similar vein, China has been actively advancing its accession to the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), seeking to leverage its influence in shaping digital trade rules.
In the context of escalating geopolitical tensions, conflicting norms, regulations, and approaches devised by major international actors are increasingly hindering the development of the global digital trade landscape. A prominent trend is the major trade powers' shift towards protectionist economic strategies. This protectionist stance manifests in measures that include, but are not limited to:
- Data localization laws and restrictions on cross-border e-commerce transactions, often justified by national security and data privacy concerns.
- Tariffs on digital services and products.
- Regulatory barriers hindering foreign tech companies from operating in domestic markets.
- Platform-specific digital protectionism.
- Fragmentation in the digital supply chain, notably in semiconductor and microconductor manufacturing.
- Regulations addressing the potential misuse of emerging technologies such as generative AI, facial recognition, deepfakes, brain-computer interfaces, quantum computing, drones, decentralized finance platforms, and blockchain.
Through our investigation, we seek to understand the impact of geopolitical and security considerations on the evolving landscape of digital trade at both regional (Asian) and global scales. We invite submissions that:
- Delineate the geopolitical shift within the evolving digital trade landscape across different regional and political contexts;
- Examine how the nexus between geopolitics, security and external digital trade unfolds in different international actors' strategies;
- Explore the intersection of cybersecurity with the formulation and negotiation of digital trade agreements in specific regional settings.
We welcome diverse theoretical approaches, methodological insights and comparative perspectives that enhance scholarship on this crucial topic. We especially welcome submission concerning the role of various Asian countries. Given the prevailing emphasis on great power rivalries, the agency of smaller Asian nations has long been disproportionately underrepresented.
All submissions to this collection will go through rigorous peer review. Reviewers will follow Springer Nature's and the journal's more detailed Peer-Review Policy.
Submission deadline: 1st March 2024
Anticipated publication date: June 2024