Digitally empowered state. Three theoretical concepts for explaining the essence of a modern state
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Research Fellow, Research Centre, Internal Security Institute of the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences
The modern state, which can be seen as a symbiosis of the physical and digital spheres, is functioning with the help of digital technologies, or a digitally empowered state.
This interaction requires a novel theoretical way for interpreting it, which would support the practical need, in a tense geopolitical situation and with increasing dependence on electrical energy, to assess the processes necessary to ensure the sustainable functioning of the state as a whole, including addressing the issues relating to the border, internal order and the security of the population of the state that has expanded into virtual space.
Based on Estonia’s digital development, this analysis presents three theoretical concepts of digitally empowered state that can be used to explain the functioning of the state and its changed nature due to digital integration. The concepts proceed from the extent of the digital services of the state, their interoperability, and the change in the size of the state caused by parallel functioning of virtual and physical sphere. To illustrate the possibilities for implementing theoretical approach to ensure sustainable functioning of the state and assessing the social processes, the analysis also uses the concepts for mapping new challenges in the field of internal security.