Dear colleagues, good morning! In case you are realising the DeepSeek success story is just an example of how China has achieved Digital Sovereignty through a very complex set of policies and initiatives, you might be interested in our new book on “Digital Sovereignty in the BRICS countries”, where we analyse how the BRICS members have attempted to build their technological autonomy (sometimes successfully, sometimes failing, sometimes not even realising it) and how they are influencing global digital governance, reshaping digital cooperation in the Global Majority. The volume was produced by the CyberBRICS Project of the Center for Technology and Society at FGV Law School and is available in *open access* on the Cambridge University Press website https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/digital-sovereignty-in-the-brics-countr... Also, in case you are interested, this Friday 31 Jan at 12:00 BRT (GMT-3), my co-editor Prof Min Jiang and I will debate some of the arguments of the book together with Dr Susan Aaronson at the Webinar on “Digital Sovereignty in the BRICS Countries” organised by the Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub, at George Washington University https://www.eventbrite.com/e/webinar-48-digital-sovereignty-in-the-brics-cou... FYI, in the book we adopted an agnostic approach to study how the BRICS countries are constructing digital sovereignty narratives, policies and actions. We decided to scrutinise the BRICS approaches not only because they offer telling illustrations of how Global South leaders are constructing their digital sovereignty, but also because their approaches are increasingly influencing and shaping the thinking of their regional and international partners, thus having direct or indirect impact. Our findings are particularly relevant for: 1. #GlobalSouth countries, where BRICS strategies are increasingly viewed as models for achieving technological autonomy, fostering innovation, and increasing control (in a good or bad way) on digital/#AI technologies 2. European countries where policymakers are now freaking out realising they are totally dependent on US technology and have clearly failed to prepare for weaponisation of tech on which they rely: Sadly, the lesson is that, when you are digitally colonised you simply lose your freedom to choose, and even if you have very elaborated laws, they are useless if the software and hardware infrastructure you rely upon is controlled by others and can be weaponised against you. 3. Anyone interested in understanding what are the different nuances of digital sovereignty (we identify seven different conceptions including personal, commons-driven, corporate, state and supranational digital sovereignty) and, most importantly, that digital sovereignty does not necessarily mean being isolated in digital autarchy: On the contrary, it frequently means reclaiming agency, self-determination over digital technologies and capacity to understand, develop and regulate effectively such technologies If you do not have time to read the book (I understand people are busy) here is a short blog on “Digital Sovereignty in the BRICS Countries: A Global South Perspective” with some key ideas summarised https://cambridgeblog.org/2024/12/digital-sovereignty-in-the-brics-countries... Also, here is the Table of Content where all chapters can be freely downloaded separately https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/digital-sovereignty-in-the-brics-countr... I would also like to wholeheartedly thank all co-authors (I am sure some are in this list) for their fantastic contributions: Wanshu Cong, Venkatesh Hariharan and Sarayu Natarajan, Vashishtha Doshi and Henrique Estides Delgado, Tales Tomaz, Johannes Thumfart, Enrico Calandro, Stefano Calzati, Olga Bronnikova, Françoise Daucé, Ksenia Ermoshina, Valéry Kossov, Benjamin Loveluck, Francesca Musiani, Bella Ostromooukhova, Perrine Poupin, Anna Zaytseva, Lastly a final gift: if you like reading hard copies of books here is a discount code DSBC2024 (valid until September 2025) to order from the CUP website www.cambridge.org/9781009531122<http://www.cambridge.org/9781009531122> A very happy new year to everyone! Best Luca