Join Adam Segal, Ira A Lipman Chair in Emerging Technologies and National Security and Director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy Programme at the Council on Foreign Relations, in conversation with Ciaran Martin, Professor of Practice in the Management of Public Organisations and Co-Director of the Oxford Programme for Cyber and Tech Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government.

In an era defined by "great power competition," the digital domain has become the primary theatre for geopolitical maneuvering. As China continues to modernise its military and tighten domestic control over its technology ecosystem, the rest of the world is watching closely to see how its approach to the internet and statecraft will evolve.

The conversation will explore the internal and external pressures influencing Beijing’s digital ambitions. The discussion will look ahead to the next 3–5 years, examining how China might shift its tactics in response to international sanctions, domestic economic pressures, and the global race for AI supremacy.

This event is part of the Global Tech Policy Seminar Series hosted by the Oxford Programme for Cyber and Technology Policy (OxCTP) and is followed by a drinks reception.

Adam Segal

Adam Segal is the Ira A. Lipman chair in emerging technologies and national security and director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). An expert on security issues, technology development, and Chinese domestic and foreign policy, Segal is the author of three books, the most recent, The Hacked World Order: How Nations Fight, Trade, Maneuver, and Manipulate in the Digital Age describes the increasingly contentious geopolitics of cyberspace. His work has appeared in the Financial Times, the New York Times, Foreign Policy, the Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Affairs, among others.

From April 2023 to June 2024, Segal was a senior advisor in the State Department's Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, where he led the development of the United States International Cyberspace and Digital Policy. Before coming to CFR, Segal was an arms control analyst for the China Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists. He has been a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for International Studies, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and Tsinghua University in Beijing.