Today’s economies are critically dependent on transnational digital infrastructures and platforms. The Digital Economic Security Lab (DIESL) maps these infrastructures, assesses countries’ and sectors’ dependence on them, and explains how they are shaped by economic and political forces. Our work informs policy making and business strategy and advances academic debates in international political economy, cybersecurity, and related fields.
Our flagship project GEOCLOUD: The Geopolitics of Cloud Computing tracks the global and sectoral reach of U.S. and Chinese cloud computing infrastructures. In other work we chart the geographic distribution and ownership of compute clusters that power AI services. We believe that transformations in digital infrastructures have far-reaching consequences, because in a digitized society computational power translates to political power.
DIESL is the name of Professor Vili Lehdonvirta’s joint research group at the Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, Finland, and the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, UK. It was established in 2024 with funding from the European Research Council and the Dieter Schwarz Foundation.
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Philipp Riederle wins award for research on digital platform interoperability
The “Jovana Karanović Impact Award” recognises research that combines scholarly excellence with societal relevance. Philipp’s research provides the first empirical evidence on a leading proposal for digital platform regulation. How can regulators restore user choice on dominant social media platforms? Interoperability is a leading policy proposal, particularly under the European Commission’s Digital Markets Act. Yet,…
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DIESL Panel at EISA PEC 2026 Lisbon
DIESL member Kunhan Li organised and chaired the panel “Infrastructures of Power: Materialities and Imaginaries of Tech Autonomy in a World of Weaponized Interdependence” at the 19th Pan-European Conference on International Relations (EISA PEC 2026), hosted by Iscte – University Institute of Lisbon on 1–4 September. The session paired work on the material foundations of…
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DIESL at the NISA Symposium in Mariehamn, Åland
DIESL members Kunhan Li and Kaarlo Liukkonen took part in the Nordic International Studies Association (NISA) symposium “Nordic International Relations in Times of Global Ruptures”, held in Mariehamn, Åland, on 19–21 August 2026. Kaarlo Liukkonen presented “The aftermath of weaponized interdependence: What explains the effects of the Snowden Revelations on countries’ email outsourcing decisions”, co-authored…
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Otto Kässi’s presentation at the Weizenbaum Institute: Regulation is changing data centre geography
Abstract: We study whether national laws limiting cross-border personal-data transfers reshape where computation occurs. We combine a country–year panel of data-centre openings in 158 countries with a new classification of national transfer regimes, and estimate event studies around the first adoption of GDPR-level rules. The response is concentrated in countries with large compliance-exposed markets. Openings…
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UAE views Trump as key partner in push to become AI powerhouse
The UAE needs American chips, professor Lehdonvirta said, while for the U.S., stepping back would mean potentially ceding ground to China.
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Why data centers are moving beyond Europe’s biggest hubs
Professor Vili Lehdonvirta commented on why data centers are moving to Nordics on CNBC documentary.
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‘It means missile defence on datacentres’: drone strikes raise doubts over Gulf as AI superpower
“If that’s the case then from now on we might perhaps see operators of prominent datacentres like AWS [Amazon Web Services] investing in air defence, similar to how shipping operators armed up against pirates,” Lehdonvirta said.
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Amazon says drones damaged three facilities in UAE and Bahrain
Vili Lehdonvirta, professor of technology policy at Aalto University, told BBC News it appeared to be the first time such cloud infrastructure had been “knocked down by military action”