The Cross-Border Nature of Digital Technologies: Rethinking Political Borders and Sovereignty in the Digital Age
DETAILS
CALL FOR PAPERS
The Cross-Border Nature of Digital Technologies: Rethinking Political Borders and Sovereignty in the Digital Age
Journal: Research in Globalization
Publisher: Elsevier
Submission Deadline: 30 December 2026
Introduction
As digital technologies increasingly mediate everything from communication and trade to public service delivery and surveillance, the traditional legal foundations of territorial sovereignty are being contested. Cloud platforms, blockchain systems, satellites, and algorithms challenge the applicability of domestic legal frameworks, raise questions about extraterritoriality, and expose critical gaps in international law.
Whether it is the inability of international space law to regulate satellite-based internet, the challenges of enforcing water rights in smart governance contexts, or the normative ambiguity of digital constitutionalism in the European Union — recent developments in digital technologies illustrate a broader legal disjuncture between spatially bounded jurisdictions and borderless digital systems.
Legal instruments designed for the analog era — such as the Westphalian model of state sovereignty or classical administrative law — are increasingly strained by the fluidity of data flows, platform governance, and infrastructural entanglements. This legal displacement has sparked new assertions of control: from data localization laws to regional trade agreements embedding digital sovereignty clauses, to local authorities experimenting with decentralized governance.
Scope & Core Research Question
This Special Issue responds to the central question:
"How do cross-border digital infrastructures reshape, challenge, and potentially reconstitute the legal and political architectures of sovereignty in an era of intensifying globalization?"
Five Thematic Areas
Theme 1 — International and Comparative Law Analyses of how domestic and international legal frameworks respond to cross-border digital infrastructures — including extraterritoriality, jurisdictional disputes, and evolving regimes of international law.
Theme 2 — Digital Governance and Policy Studies of state, regional, and local strategies to assert digital sovereignty — such as data localization, platform regulation, and digital trade provisions.
Theme 3 — Geopolitics of Infrastructure Investigations into how satellite networks, undersea cables, or cloud infrastructures reconfigure spatial power relations and generate new forms of dependency or inequality.
Theme 4 — Critical Perspectives on Data and Algorithms Contributions interrogating the normative, constitutional, and ethical implications of algorithmic governance, digital constitutionalism, and critical data studies.
Theme 5 — Case-Based Contexts Empirical analyses of specific sites where sovereignty is contested by digital systems — such as smart cities, cross-border resource governance, or emerging blockchain applications.
List of Topic Areas
Manuscripts are invited on themes including, but not limited to:
Territorial sovereignty and the challenge of borderless digital systems
Extraterritoriality and jurisdictional disputes in the digital age
Data localization laws — spatially anchoring data within sovereign jurisdictions
Digital sovereignty — state, regional, and local strategies for asserting control
Platform governance and the regulation of global digital platforms
Digital trade provisions and sovereignty clauses in regional trade agreements
Satellite networks and international space law — regulatory gaps and challenges
Undersea cable infrastructure and geopolitics of digital connectivity
Cloud infrastructure — power asymmetries, dependency, and inequality
Algorithmic governance — normative and constitutional implications
Digital constitutionalism — the European Union and beyond
Critical data studies — data flows, surveillance, and rights
Blockchain applications and decentralized governance — sovereignty implications
Smart cities and cross-border resource governance
Power asymmetries between states and corporations in digital infrastructure governance
Guest Editors
Dr. Imad Antoine Ibrahim Section of Governance and Technology for Sustainability, University of Twente, Netherlands Email: i.ibrahim@utwente.nl
Prof. Jon Truby Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore, Singapore Email: truby@nus.edu.sg
Dr. Davide Giacomo Zoppolato West Virginia University, USA Email: dgz00003@mix.wvu.edu
Key Deadlines
Manuscript Submission Deadline: 30 December 2026
Submission Guidelines
All submissions must be made via the Research in Globalization (RESGLO) online submission system. When choosing the Manuscript Article Type during the submission procedure, select:
"VSI: Cross-Border of Digital Technologies"
Otherwise your submission will be handled as a regular manuscript.
All submitted papers should address significant issues pertinent to the theme of this Special Issue and fall within the scope of RESGLO. Criteria for acceptance include originality, contribution, and scientific merit. All manuscripts must be written in English with high scientific writing standards.
All submissions must be original and must not be under review elsewhere at the time of submission.
Why Publish in This Special Issue?
Special Issue articles are downloaded twice as often within the first 24 months compared to regular issue articles
Special Issue articles attract 20% more citations in the first 24 months
Articles are published together on ScienceDirect — easy for researchers to discover your work
All articles reviewed by no fewer than two independent experts
About the Journal
Research in Globalization, published by Elsevier, is a fully open access peer-reviewed journal with a CiteScore of 6.6 and Impact Factor of 3.7. It is dedicated to advancing interdisciplinary research on globalization — exploring the economic, political, social, technological, and legal dimensions of cross-border flows, governance, and integration in an increasingly interconnected world.
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