Online publication
Technology and power
Technopolitique is an independent publication on what digital infrastructure does to states and organisations, and on the decisions it makes possible or impossible. Studies and notes appear in open access, with their sources, in the Cahiers de technopolitique. Most issues are written in French; issues 7 and 2 are also available in English, and issue 7 in Arabic.
Publisher and publication director Nizar Younes Mqam · Identity and background
What is technopolitics?
Technopolitics
noun · from the Greek tekhnê, art or technique, and politikos, relating to the city
The study and practice of the political effects produced by technical systems, and conversely of the way power relations take material form in infrastructure.
A submarine cable, a data centre or an artificial intelligence model are not neutral objects. Their location, their ownership and their governance decide who depends on whom, what keeps working when everything stops, and who holds the switch.
The term is taken here in its operational sense, which goes further than analysis. Observing a dependency does not correct it: one still has to design the architecture that removes it, write the governance that frames it, and install the management system that proves the organisation delivers what it announces. Technopolitics as practised here runs from the geostrategy of infrastructure down to the internal audit of the standard that governs it. It is the only way to avoid two symmetrical dead ends: geopolitical commentary with no grip on reality, and documentary compliance that protects against nothing.
Fields of work
- Sovereignty Architecture of sovereign artificial intelligence platforms, AI governance, control of the chain of technical and legal dependencies.
- Infrastructure Continuity and resilience of critical infrastructure, physical exposure of digital systems, the NIS2, CER and DORA frameworks.
- Asset management Implementation and internal audit of ISO 55001:2024: turning a strategic requirement into a verifiable management system, from the standard to the evidence.
- Method Applied techno-geopolitics, a Privacy-First approach: no recommendation that the organisation receiving it cannot test.
Publications
Everything here appears in open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. The Cahiers carry the in-depth work: each issue is a citable PDF, with numbered sources, a DOI and long-term archiving at CERN, in a series registered under ISSN 3131-7979. Two formats share one identifier, the Study, long and documented, and the Note, focused on one precise question.
Serial publication
Cahiers de technopolitique
Seven issues published, from the most recent to the first. Titles are given in their original language.
-
LatestNo. 7 · Study · October 2026
ISO 55001 and the AI agent: who signs before the auditor?
AI agents already operate valves and write work orders on industrial assets. Nine real cases reread through ISO 55001:2024: none says who answers for the machine's decision.
11 pages · 30 sources · PDF 115 KB
DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23207212 -
No. 6 · Study · September 2026
Who keeps the register of the sky?
Asset management enters orbit, with maintenance, a life-extension market and end-of-life law. But the operational register of the sky is kept by an American military squadron, and the powers that buy orbital assets contract for their access to someone else's information.
12 pages · 34 sources · PDF 143 KB
DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23207437Also inFrançais
-
No. 5 · Study · September 2026
The cost of taking back: you cannot price what you have stopped seeing
Half of the public authorities surveyed keep no register of the assets under their contract. The cost of taking an operation back exists, it is paid, and it is written down nowhere.
7 pages · 8 sources · PDF 97 KB
DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23207038Also inFrançais
-
No. 4 · Study · September 2026
Delegated operation: the works come back, the capability does not
The law returns the works and the contract guarantees their condition. Neither returns the capability to operate them, which leaves with the outgoing operator and must be bought back.
8 pages · 12 sources · PDF 100 KB
DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23284423Also inFrançais
-
No. 3 · Study · September 2026
Asset data: exit becomes free, the model stays captive
From 12 January 2027, switching provider will cost nothing. What remains is what you take with you: the contracts promise tables, while the model of the asset register stays behind, excluded by the very definition of exportable data.
14 pages · 28 sources · PDF 125 KB
DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23207208Also inFrançais
-
No. 2 · Note · September 2026
Maintenance AI: you keep ownership, you lose control
Contracts acknowledge that your data belongs to you. Their definitions place the derived layer on the provider's side, and that right survives termination.
5 pages · 12 sources · PDF 87 KB
DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23207206 -
No. 1 · Study · September 2026
When the cloud catches fire
Drones struck Amazon Web Services data centres in the Gulf and disrupted more than 109 of its services in the Emirates. What the shift from cyber threat to physical destruction changes for anyone who must guarantee continuity.
23 pages · 43 references · PDF 202 KB
DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23270771Also inFrançais
All issues, with full records and sources (in French)
Publisher and author
Nizar Younes Mqam · Chief AI Officer, AI governance and digital sovereignty architect for critical infrastructure · Lead Implementer and internal auditor ISO 55001:2024 · Techno-geopolitics and a Privacy-First approach
Technopolitique is published under his editorial responsibility in Tourcoing, France. He is the publisher and publication director of the Cahiers de technopolitique, ISSN 3131-7979. The legal information of the publication is set out in the legal notice. The identifiers below make it possible to verify this identity with third parties.
- ORCID 0009-0008-5549-7620
- ISSN 3131-7979 · Cahiers de technopolitique
- Codeberg codeberg.org/Nizyou
- LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/nizar-mqam
- Contact y.nizar@proton.me