Digital Sovereignty

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The world has moved from rules to raw power – and that power is increasingly exercised digitally. Denmark and Europe have made themselves efficient, flexible and digitalized. But in doing so, we have also made ourselves vulnerable. When critical digital services are owned, operated and controlled beyond our reach, access can in principle be restricted at a click of a mouse. Sovereignty is not a moral choice or an IT detail. It is a strategic condition. 

Digital sovereignty gives management and the board a new language for dependence, freedom of action and resilience. The book introduces a digital dependency score that makes supplier dependency visible and measurable, and a five-level maturity model that shows the way from ad hoc decisions to ongoing optimization. With a scenario analysis, the concepts are translated into concrete preparation: What do you do if conditions change, access is restricted, or geopolitical shocks hit your digital foundation? 

The book is written for IT departments, companies and their boards - but also contains a whole chapter on the public sector as a major consumer of digital solutions and the paradox of being the most digital and at the same time the least sovereign. 

If this book has one ambition, it is to turn digital sovereignty into a concrete management project. Not as fear, but as strategy. Not as a slogan, but as a capability. This is the book for those who want to control dependency - before the dependency controls them. 

Jan Damsgaard is a professor at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) and one of Denmark’s most significant voices in the intersection between technology, business and geopolitics. He researches and teaches digital transformation, digital platforms, AI, blockchain and technology economics - and continuously advises companies and public actors on strategic tech choices. With a keen eye for how digital infrastructures create dependence, power and lock-in, he translates complex mechanisms into management-relevant decision frameworks. In this book, he brings together many years of work with digital markets and corporate strategy in a practical and uncompromising analysis of what digital sovereignty means - and how it can be managed.