DIIS Tech — Research initiative on technology and power

Technology has always shaped international politics. Think about the geopolitical implications of the compass, the steam engine, missile technology, satellites, nuclear weapons, or computers. Today, artificial intelligence, telecommunications, renewable energy, and other technological developments are reshaping the world. How are new and emerging technologies changing the character of war? How do new technologies aggravate or alleviate inequalities around the world? How will the green transition and the diminishing dependency on oil shift the wealth and power of nations? And how should democracies respond to the challenges of Big Tech? 

DIIS Tech is an interdisciplinary research initiative that deepens our understanding of how old and new technologies are currently affecting politics and international relations across the globe. In the period from 2021-2024, DIIS will boost its research on technology in collaboration with partners in Denmark and abroad. The aim is to strengthen the public conversation about the dangers and possibilities of technology in our society today and in the years to come.

Trine Villumsen Berling
Trine has worked extensively on sociotechnical imaginaries of energy security and is currently the PI of a project focusing on technification of security authority in the Baltic Sea Region

Maria-Louise Clausen
Maria-Louise explores how the introduction of technology perpetuate global hierarchies and inequalities, as well as how the introduction of renewable energy impact state formation processes

Adam Moe Fejerskov
Adam studies the global terrain of technology and inequality  

Sofie Henriksen
Sofie studies tech companies as humanitarian actors; humanitarian innovation and technology; Information and communications technologies in refugee governance and aid

Nauja Kleist
Nauja is curious about the role of technology in diaspora humanitarianism (in the Somali regions and amongst Somali diaspora groups) and infrastructure as an analytical perspective

Marie Kolling
Marie does ethnographic research on the commodification of data and debt as a new frontier of digital finance for capital accumulation in marginal sites

Johannes Lang
Johannes Lang explores the relations between war, society, and technology. He is particularly interested in how science and technology are changing the character and psychology of contemporary warfare

Helle Malmvig
Helle works on simulated war, war at a distance, digital authoritarianism, aesthetic technologies of war/protest, SoME in the the global south/Arab world

Rens Van Munster
Rens’ work studies how nuclear weapons technology has shaped novel imaginaries of planetary politics and the future

Jethro Norman
Jethro works on how proliferating information and communication technologies are shaping new patterns of mobility and sociality in Somalia/Somaliland

Luke Anthony Patey
Luke works on US-China tech competition, middle power states as tech leaders, 5G networks

Karen Lund Petersen
Karen works on issues related to information and communications technologies, cyber security and the concept of innovation in green transition

Robin May Schott
Robin works on technology in relation to the changing character of warfare; how data-driven technologies reinscribe social inequalities; and how technologies pose challenges to democracy

Peer Schouten
Peer works on the politics of infrastructure in the global south and the coproduction of political and technological orders

Sarah Seddig
Sarah explores reproductive HealthTech innovation in Kenya by tracing how commodification/privatisation processes and modes of control and power surface in a new data-driven and gender-specific context

Veronika Slakaityte
Veronika works on independence narratives through energy infrastructure in Lithuania

Izabella Surwillo
Izabela investigates what role scientific knowledge and technical data play in the decision-making process and public communication about new energy infrastructure projects in the Baltic Sea Region

Vibeke Schou Tjalve
Vibeke works on the links between technology, democracy, and security. Her current work explores nature and technology in the utopian visions of transhumanism and digital democracy emerging from Silicon Valley