Regulating Cloud Services as a Tool of International Competition: Defining the Domain

Abstract

The development of ‘new political spaces’, particularly within the information domain, is emerging as a significant trend. With the rapid expansion of the global ICT sector, cloud services have become one of the pivotal industries. This paper explores the core aspects of the cloud services sector, delineates its key components and highlights its principal feature: the ability to facilitate long-term cross-border operations through remote program execution and network access. Cloud services constitute a burgeoning global market dominated by the U.S. and China, fostering both economic and non-economic competition, along with associated threats and opportunities. In this competitive environment, various actors, especially states and large corporations, assert their political interests. The study reviews diverse scholarly approaches to cloud services within political science from 2010 to 2022. The author proposes two scientific hypotheses: the first posits that the growth of the global cloud services market, combined with their technical characteristics, contributes to the transformation of this technology into a powerful instrument of international influence and competition; the second hypothesis asserts that governmental regulation of cloud services can serve as an effective method for countries seeking to enhance their international influence and impact on other participants in international relations. The paper examines governmental regulatory goals, types and methods within legal, cultural, political and economic subsystems. Furthermore, the study outlines the existing international regulatory framework for cloud services and proposes an alternative model. This proposed model supports the coexistence of multiple regulatory regimes, enhances coordination among system participants and mitigates the likelihood of destructive actions targeting individual participants.