<div dir="ltr">Dear Imad,<br><br>Thank you for sharing your essay. I found it both rich in insight and provocative in how it frames digital sovereignty as a paradoxical project rather than a stable endpoint. The idea that the pursuit of autonomy inevitably fragments the relational fabric of the internet raises important questions for how we conceptualize governance and interdependence in digital spaces.<br><br>Your argument that the internet has become a \u201cstate of exception\u201d is particularly compelling, but it also invites further interrogation. If exceptionality is now the operating logic, does this suggest that the internet\u2019s original universalist ethos was always fragile\u2014perhaps even an illusion\u2014rather than a norm disrupted by geopolitics? In other words, is what we are witnessing a rupture or simply the revealing of an underlying reality?<br><br>Similarly, your treatment of the freedom/security duality highlights how cyber conflict reshapes the logic of openness into vulnerability. This resonates, yet it may be useful to explore whether the \u201cmilitary vulnerability\u201d framing risks reproducing state-centric perspectives. Might there also be an analytical space for understanding how non-state actors, civic networks, or transnational communities navigate and resist this securitization of the internet?<br><br>The Iranian case study serves as a vivid \u201claboratory of digital tragedy,\u201d though I wonder if the concept of fragility might be expanded. While isolation compounds vulnerability, it may also give rise to alternative infrastructures, shadow economies, or even local forms of resilience that complicate a linear narrative of decline.<br><br>You raise critical issues about the trajectory of internet governance, especially as digital sovereignty becomes less about the assertion of independence and more about managing interdependence under conditions of mistrust. I am left reflecting on whether this nationalist turn is inevitable\u2014or whether alternative governance models could still emerge to temper fragmentation.<br><br>Warm regards,<br>Daniel K. Nanghaka</div><div hspace="streak-pt-mark" style="max-height:1px"><img alt="" style="width:0px;max-height:0px;overflow:hidden" src="https://mailfoogae.appspot.com/t?sender=aZG5kYW5uYW5nQGdtYWlsLmNvbQ%3D%3D&type=zerocontent&guid=354378f7-5362-4f43-98da-c667143b8879"><font color="#ffffff" size="1">\u1427</font></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, 20 Aug 2025 at 16:09, Imad Payande <<a href="mailto:imad.payande@gmail.com">imad.payande@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div>
<p>Dear colleagues,</p>
<p>Pleased to share my latest essay with <i>Internet Policy Review</i>:</p>
<p><b>\u201cThe Internet\u2019s Inevitable Nationalist Turn.\u201d</b><b></b></p>
<p><a href="https://policyreview.info/articles/analysis/internets-inevitable-nationalist-turn" target="_blank">https://policyreview.info/articles/analysis/internets-inevitable-nationalist-turn </a></p>
<p>The piece argues that digital sovereignty is not a stable end-state but a <span><b>paradoxical project</b></span>\u2014one that seeks autonomy yet fragments the relational fabric of the internet.</p><p>Among its sharper implications:</p><p><span></span></p><p>
</p><p></p><p></p><ul><li>
<p>The internet has turned into a <span><b>state of exception</b></span>: <i>what was once an anomaly is now the operating logic</i>.</p>
</li><li>
<p>The <span><b>freedom/security duality</b></span> is sharper than ever: <i>in times of cyber conflict, the very traits that made the internet flexible and open become military vulnerabilities</i>.</p>
</li><li>
<p>Iran stands as a <span><b>laboratory of digital tragedy</b></span>: <i>sanctions and cyberattacks push it toward gray equipment and network isolation, yet that very isolation deepens fragility</i>.</p>
</li></ul>
<p>At a moment when many in our field hesitate to write about these painful dynamics, this essay is a modest attempt to honor the urgency of what is unfolding.</p>
<p>I would be very glad to hear your thoughts.</p>
<p>Warm regards,<br>Imad</p></div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(34,34,34);line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-family:Avenir,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;text-align:justify">____</span><br></p><p style="color:rgb(136,136,136);margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/imadpayande/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">Imad Payande</a></p><p style="color:rgb(136,136,136);margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"></p><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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