On June 1, 2026, the John Lukacs Institute for Strategy and Politics hosted a closed, expert-level workshop titled “Great Power Competition and the Development, Application, and Regulation of New Technologies.” The event featured Prof. Emilian Kavalski from Tampere University.
The workshop aimed to provide a platform for an interactive professional discourse on the expansion of Chinese digital platforms and drone technologies in Europe – with a special emphasis on agricultural drones – in order to address the strategic implications for the region. Despite the critical national security significance of the topic, the discussion highlighted how remarkably little attention this field currently receives in public and policy discourse.
The discussion focused on three core areas: the market penetration of Chinese digital systems and drone networks, the European responses to data security risks, and the geopolitical framings of Chinese tech in media discourse. Participants also focused heavily on evaluating potential policy responses and formulating relevant future research questions. The workshop successfully provided strategic insights into critical data infrastructure protection and digital sovereignty, while shaping future research directions to better address the analytical challenges posed by these emerging technological ecosystems.
Text and photos: JLI