The Geopolitics and Diplomacy of the Metaverse

Our next guest at the Transylvania Lectures series is Shaun Riordan is the Director of the Chair for Diplomacy and Cyberspace at the European Institute of International Studies. The former British diplomat served in New York, Taiwan, Beijing and Madrid, as well as the Foreign Office in London. He has spent the last twenty years investigating innovation in diplomacy and how technological change is driving geopolitical risk. His work resulted in four books and many articles and book chapters.

The Metaverse has gained profile since Mark Zuckerberg made it the focus of Facebook´s work and changed the company´s name to Meta. The alternative reality will be accessible through VR devices, and will operate in parallel to the physical world. Extravagant claims are being made for the Metaverse, with speculation already about opening embassies in this virtual reality. But the technical and geopolitical challenges to be met in creating the Metaverse are considerable. State and non-state actors will compete over its construction and its structure will be shaped by the geopolitical environment. Once a metaverse or multiple metaverses have been constructed, they will become spaces for geopolitical rivalries within or between them.

This discussion will look at the technical and commercial challenges in constructing the metavers. It will also explore how the geopolitical environment will shape the construction of the Metaverse and the role of diplomacy in mitigating conflicts between state and non-state actors in the construction process. It will explore the possible outcomes, single or multiple metaverses, and their implications for geopolitics and diplomacy. Finally, it will examine individual “metaverse” technologies and how they might serve as digital tools whether in policy analysis or public diplomacy.

Moderator: Péter W. Szabó, IT professional, founder of Tengr.ai and the Hungarian Society of Innovation and Technology in Transylvania, local councilor of Marosvásárhely (Târgu Mureș).

We kindly ask you to inform us of your intention to attend by filling in the form below. The event will be held in English!