Doomscrollers by day, gamers by night : patching digital sovereignty in the Western Balkan states amid US-China technological rivalry

Vangeli, Anastas (author), Bojinović Fenko, Ana (author), Kočan, Faris (author)

This article examines the complex landscape of digital sovereignty inthe WB states against the backdrop of the technological rivalrybetween the US and China and the region’s EU accession. A doubleanalytical lens is introduced to analyse digital sovereignty: ‘sovereigntyover’ and ‘sovereignty through’. The article shows that WB states arenot merely passive recipients of external technological initiatives.Instead, they are portrayed as opportunistic and sometimes strategicactors operating within digital dependencies. Their technologicalchoices are shaped by formal policy frameworks, market forces, andinstitutional capacities, with a focus on cost efficiency. In particular, thepaper analyses the interplay between China’s Digital Silk Road and theUS-led Clean Network Initiative in the region. It shows that some WBstates join US pressure to ban Chinese technologies (e.g. Albania,North Macedonia, Kosovo), while others (e.g. Serbia, Montenegro,and Bosnia and Herzegovina) maintain cooperation with Chinesedigital companies, often for pragmatic reasons. Ultimately, the articleargues that digital sovereignty in the Western Balkans is a function oftechnological and institutional capacity, geopolitical pressure, discur-sive framing and strategic adaptation by local actors, which raises thequestion of whether their hedging strategies truly represent digitalsovereignty or illustrate a permanent lack of it.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Western Balkan states, digital sovereignty, technology, technological initiatives, US-China technological rivalry
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Geographic coverage: Balkanski polotok; Združene države Amerike; Kitajska
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 24.10.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 1-23
• Numbering: Vol. , iss.
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-175432
• UDC: 327
• ISSN on article: 1478-2804
• DOI: 10.1080/14782804.2025.2578698
• COBISS.SI-ID: 254750211
• Publication date in RUL: 27.10.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of contemporary European studies
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• ISSN: 1478-2804
• COBISS.SI-ID: 512251417

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: države zahodnega Balkana, digitalna suverenost, tehnologija, tehnološke iniciative, Ameriško-Kitajsko tehnološko rivalstvo