TBI warns that governments need “digital embassies” to keep systems running during war, cyber-attacks or infrastructure disruption
Governments should bolster national resilience to run hospitals, banking systems and public services if critical physical infrastructure is damaged
Comes amid growing concern over attacks on Middle Eastern digital infrastructure
Governments must create “digital back-ups” to ensure their most critical systems can continue to function during war, cyber-attacks and major infrastructure disruption, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has warned.
In a new paper, Digital Embassies and AI Sovereignty: Building Resilient States Beyond Borders, TBI argues that effective modern states use digital systems to deliver public services and run economies. But those systems still depend on physical infrastructure – from data centres and cloud systems to subsea cables and AI compute infrastructure – that can be damaged during major crises.
As governments digitalise more of the state, today’s national resilience increasingly depends on ensuring that critical digital systems can continue to operate even if the underlying physical infrastructure fails, the paper argues. From hospitals to banking systems, disruption can quickly affect services millions of people rely on every day.
TBI calls on governments to develop “digital embassy” arrangements with trusted allies and partners, allowing states to securely back up or operate essential systems overseas while retaining sovereign control over their data and operations. Ukraine’s experience during Russia’s invasion showed how quickly digital resilience can become a national security issue, with critical government systems relying on external cloud infrastructure and international partnerships to preserve continuity.
The report’s author, TBI’s director of science & technology Keegan McBride, said: “In today’s volatile world, countries can’t afford to assume their digital systems are safe simply because they sit within national borders. The conflicts in Ukraine and Iran have shown how access can be lost overnight when physical infrastructure is damaged – with devastating consequences.
“Governments need what we call ‘digital embassies’ – secure digital back-ups of critical state systems with allies and partners, so countries can continue to function during crises. In the AI era, national security increasingly depends on resilient digital infrastructure and strategic independence – not assuming you can do everything alone. That’s what can keep the country running when disruption hits.”
The report sets out three key recommendations for governments developing a digital-embassy strategy:
Protect critical state functions: Governments should identify which public services, systems and data sets must continue operating during a crisis, set clear resilience standards, and establish in advance the legal and operational conditions under which cross-border continuity arrangements would be activated.
Preserve sovereign control: States should define which core functions – such as identity management and encryption – must remain under national control, reduce dependence on any single provider or jurisdiction, and ensure critical systems can be transferred or restored if needed. The public should also have transparency over what is hosted overseas and who can access it.
Stress-test digital resilience: Digital embassies will only strengthen national resilience if they remain credible under real-world pressure. Governments should establish robust legal agreements, conduct joint crisis exercises with allies and partners, and regularly test continuity plans against cyber-attacks, conflict and major infrastructure failures.