Writing in The National Interest, University of Baltimore Prof. Ivan Sascha Sheehan, associate dean and professor in The University of Baltimore's College of Public Affairs and a noted expert in international relations, says that private technology companies' encroachment on daily life has reached a point where the sovereignty of nations is in question. He proposes a system of review of foreign technology companies to ensure that boundaries are maintained.
Using the example of the Swiss technology company Sicpa, Dr. Sheehan says that this industry has expanded into areas previously within the domain of the government.
"It is about expanding a model of governance where critical state functions like tax enforcement, customs compliance, and identity verification are outsourced to private technology firms with little public oversight," Prof. Sheehan writes. "Congress should formally review foreign technology vendors embedded in the US regulatory infrastructure, particularly in areas sensitive to revenue collection, currency issuance, and supply chain tracking."
Sheehan says that companies like Sicpa "quietly control vital state functions—tax enforcement, currency authentication, and digital tracking—posing serious risks to national sovereignty with little transparency or public oversight."
The overarching issue, he writes, needs significantly more attention.
"Big Tech's tightening grip on American life has become impossible to ignore," he writes. "From Silicon Valley's selective censorship to TikTok's opaque data harvesting, the public knows the dangers of surrendering digital infrastructure to unaccountable corporate actors. Yet while all eyes remain fixed on Beijing's influence operations, quieter forces are burrowing deeper into the machinery of state sovereignty, not just in the United States, but across the globe."
Read the article, "Foreign Technology Can and Will Endanger Sovereignty," in The National Interest.
Learn more about Prof. Ivan Sascha Sheehan and UBalt's School of Public and International Affairs.