Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology

by Anu Bradford Narrated by Nancy Peterson

Overview

The global battle among the three dominant digital powers-the United States, China, and the European Union-is intensifying. All three regimes are racing to regulate tech companies, with each advancing a competing vision for the digital economy while attempting to expand its sphere of influence in the digital world. In Digital Empires, her provocative follow-up to The Brussels Effect, Anu Bradford explores a rivalry that will shape the world in the decades to come.



Across the globe, people dependent on digital technologies have become increasingly alarmed that their rapid adoption and transformation have ushered in an exceedingly concentrated economy where a few powerful companies control vast economic wealth and political power, undermine data privacy, and widen the gap between economic winners and losers. Bradford examines three competing regulatory approaches-the American market-driven model, the Chinese state-driven model, and the European rights-driven regulatory model-and discusses how governments and tech companies navigate the inevitable conflicts that arise when these regulatory approaches collide.



Digital Empires lays bare the choices we face as societies and individuals, explains the forces that shape those choices, and illuminates the immense stakes involved for everyone who uses digital technologies.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Anu Bradford provides a holistic and balanced view of the three competing regulatory systems at the intersection of technology and society. Digital Empires is a must read for anyone seeking to understand what's at stake in developing a practical regulatory framework that serves the needs of people everywhere." — Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft

"Anu Bradford's Digital Empires is an essential read for anyone who wants to understand the regulatory choices confronting governments that seek to reign in big tech. The US, China and Europe have chosen different paths, and Bradford carefully breaks down the legal and political contexts of each. Bradford's voice is clear and reasonable and this book is a tour de force." — Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel laureate 2001 in economics

"It is easy to forget that the future of the big tech is not just the question of what Europe, China or the U.S. will do, but how it all comes together. Anu Bradford offers the single best approach to understanding these interactions to make sense of an otherwise bewildering present and future." — Tim Wu, Special Assistant to President Biden for Technology and Competition Policy, 2021-2023

"This is the definitive account of the fierce and hugely important fight within and among "digital empires" - the United States, China, and the European Union - over the shape of our digital lives. Among its important conclusions are that the European rights-driven regulatory model, rather than the American market-driven model, is best poised to unite the democratic west and challenge China's growing control in the digital realm." — Jack Goldsmith, Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

"Digital Empires is essential reading for all policymakers wanting to understand the drivers and implications of conflicts that threaten the global nature of the digital economy. Bradford offers a nuanced and highly compelling account of a digital world between decoupling and continuing globalization." — Pascal Lamy, Director general of the WTO, 2005-2013

"Digital Empires describes the coming race between the US, China, and the EU to impose their regulatory models and set the norms that govern the global digital order. The outcome of this struggle will shape the geopolitical map in unimaginable ways. A thoroughly researched, extremely readable, and perfectly timed work." — Ian Bremmer, President of the Eurasia Group and author of The Power of Crisis

"Stimulating." — Nature

"Comprehensive and insightful." — The New Yorker

"Thoroughly researched." — Financial Times

"Digital Empires The Global Battle to Regulate Technology is Anu Bradford's latest insightful, thought-provoking, and nuanced critical analysis of the leading digital world-wide powers." — Lola Montero Santos, PhD researcher at the European University Institute

"This large book, written in the American format,...is captivating because of its height of vision and the abundance of illustrations." — Recueil Dalloz

"The book shines as a genuine tour de force and a forward-looking research endeavour." — Mahmoud Javadi, International Affairs

Library Journal

★ 07/21/2023

International trade law expert Bradford (Columbia Law Sch.; The Brussels Effect) explains that China, the EU, and the U.S. are all vying as rival "digital empires," eager to shape the global digital order to advance their influence, interests and values. Each empire advances a distinct vision of how the digital world should work and be regulated. For example, the book notes that China pursues a state-driven digital authoritarianism; the U.S. a market-driven surveillance capitalism; and the EU a liberal democratic individualism. But they are hardly alone in exercising far-reaching digital power. Large technology companies such as Google, Meta, and Microsoft rival the power of nation-states. And so, Bradford explains, the battle to govern the shape and soul of the digital world takes on multiple dimensions amid struggles between governments and tech companies. VERDICT An accessible, informative, instructive, and adroit analysis of the forces that are shaping choices and defining technology's future promises. For policymakers, this is an essential read.—Thomas J. Davis

Product Details

BN ID:	2940192620250
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	07/23/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged