The second quantum revolution is a revolution of information. Advances in quantum computation, communication, and sensing offer new capabilities while raising questions about how quantum infrastructures will be organised, accessed, and governed. We argue that their significance for governance lies not in transforming political principles, but in how their technical and infrastructural requirements may affect existing relationships of authority, responsibility, legitimacy, and power. This paper develops a quantum governance lens that connects governance scholarship with quantum information science, examining interactions between technical design, institutional arrangements, and infrastructural dependencies. We apply this lens to five areas: quantum computation, quantum key distribution, Quantum Byzantine Agreement, blind quantum computation, and dual-use quantum sensing. These applications illustrate how technical capabilities may influence access, trust, privacy, oversight, and accountability, while demonstrating that technical guarantees cannot resolve institutional questions independently. We conclude that quantum technologies do not necessarily introduce unique governance challenges or require entirely new governance frameworks. Rather, they provide a context in which established questions of legitimacy, accountability, and equity must be reconsidered in relation to emerging technological capabilities and institutional choices.
The second quantum revolution is a revolution of information. Advances in quantum computation, communication, and sensing offer new capabilities while raising questions about how quantum infrastructures will be organised, accessed, and governed. We argue that their significance for governance lies not in transforming political principles, but in how their technical and infrastructural requirements may affect existing relationships of authority, responsibility, legitimacy, and power. This paper develops a quantum governance lens that connects governance scholarship with quantum information science, examining interactions between technical design, institutional arrangements, and infrastructural dependencies. We apply this lens to five areas: quantum computation, quantum key distribution, Quantum Byzantine Agreement, blind quantum computation, and dual-use quantum sensing. These applications illustrate how technical capabilities may influence access, trust, privacy, oversight, and accountability, while demonstrating that technical guarantees cannot resolve institutional questions independently. We conclude that quantum technologies do not necessarily introduce unique governance challenges or require entirely new governance frameworks. Rather, they provide a context in which established questions of legitimacy, accountability, and equity must be reconsidered in relation to emerging technological capabilities and institutional choices.
Quantum technologies are increasingly moving from specialist laboratories into the strategic agenda of governments, industries, and international organisations. Quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum sensing are expected to reshape cybersecurity, scientific discovery, industrial productivity, public infrastructure, and national competitiveness. Yet the same technologies also raise complex governance challenges, including cryptographic vulnerability, dual-use risks, technological inequality, workforce shortages, procurement uncertainty, and the concentration of innovation capacity in a small number of advanced economies. This article develops an adaptive public administration framework for responsible quantum technology governance. Using qualitative document-based policy analysis, the study examines international policy documents, responsible innovation literature, quantum technology roadmaps, post-quantum cryptography guidance, and emerging governance principles. The article argues that quantum technologies should not be governed only as technical artefacts or national security assets, but also as public policy objects whose societal consequences require anticipatory, inclusive, and institutionally coordinated governance. The proposed Quantum Public Administration Governance Framework consists of five interrelated dimensions: foresight and anticipatory intelligence, cybersecurity and cryptographic readiness, institutional coordination, responsible innovation and public value, and equity-oriented capacity building. The findings suggest that public administrations need to build quantum literacy, establish cross-sector coordination mechanisms, prepare digital infrastructure for post-quantum risks, support ethical and socially beneficial innovation, and prevent the emergence of a global and domestic quantum divide. The article contributes to public administration scholarship by translating the technical uncertainty of quantum technologies into a governance agenda that is relevant for policy makers, public managers, and emerging economies seeking to participate responsibly in the second quantum revolution.
K SC The second quantum revolution is not only a scientific and technological transformation but also a profound governance challenge. As quantum technologies move from laboratory demonstrations to strategic assets, states and international institutions face urgent questions about security, sovereignty, standards, supply chains, and ethical deployment. This third volume in the series examines the emerging field of quantum governance through the lenses of international relations, science and technology studies, and digital sovereignty. It analyses the competitive dynamics between major powers, the risks of quantum-enabled disruption to existing security architectures, and the opportunities for more equitable global regimes. Particular attention is given to the position of the Global South and to the institutional innovations required to prevent a quantum divide that mirrors or deepens existing inequalities. The paper argues for a multi-layered governance architecture that combines arms-control-like mechanisms for quantum capabilities with proactive investment in inclusive quantum infrastructure and norms. Also available on Academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/attachments/133209098/download_file?s=portfolio
Quantum technologies are rapidly emerging as a transformative force with profound implications for critical infrastructures, national security, and global governance. Quantum computing, quantum communications, and quantum sensing promise unprecedented advances in data processing, secure communications, and environmental and infrastructure monitoring. At the same time, their disruptive potential introduces new ethical, security, and geopolitical risks, particularly for systems that underpin modern societies such as energy networks, telecommunications, finance, transportation, and defence infrastructures. This paper examines the governance of quantum technologies for critical infrastructures, moving from ethical impact assessment to the formulation of coherent national strategies. The study argues that the unique characteristics of quantum technologies — including their high degree of complexity, dual-use nature, and capacity to undermine existing cryptographic and security frameworks — require a shift from reactive regulation to anticipatory and responsible governance. Traditional regulatory approaches are insufficient to address the speed, uncertainty, and strategic relevance of quantum innovation. Instead, the paper emphasizes the need to integrate ethical impact assessment, risk analysis, and societal considerations at the earliest stages of research, development, and deployment. Ethical governance is presented not as a constraint on innovation, but as a foundational element for ensuring trust, resilience, and long-term sustainability. The analysis situates quantum governance within a broader geopolitical context, highlighting how major global actors are investing in quantum capabilities as strategic assets. This competition increases the urgency for coordinated governance frameworks that balance technological sovereignty, security, and international cooperation. Particular attention is given to the protection of critical infrastructures and the transition towards quantum-safe systems, especially in the field of cybersecurity and secure communications. Finally, the paper outlines the implications for national and European strategies, stressing the importance of multi-level governance involving governments, international organisations, industry, and research institutions. It concludes that only a holistic approach — combining ethical foresight, anticipatory governance, and strategic planning — can ensure that quantum technologies enhance societal resilience and security rather than exacerbate systemic vulnerabilities. In this sense, quantum governance becomes a central component of future national strategies for critical infrastructure protection and technological leadership.
Quantum information technologies, covering quantum computing, quantum communication and quantum sensing, are among the most significant technologies to emerge in recent decades, offering the promise of paradigm-shifting computational capacity with significant ethical consequences. On a technical level, the unique features of quantum information processing have potential consequences for the imposition of fairness and ethical constraints on computation. Despite their significance, structured research is only beginning to be undertaken into the ethical implications of such quantum technologies, much of it piecemeal and unsystematic. In this work, we present a roadmap for prospective research programs focused upon the ethics of quantum computing. We summarize the key elements of quantum information processing (concentrating on quantum computation) relevant to ethical analysis and set out taxonomies for use by researchers considering the ethics of quantum technologies. We show how the unique features of quantum information processing may give rise to distinct ethical consequences (including in the context of machine learning). We situate quantum ethics at the cross-disciplinary intersection of quantum information science, technology ethics and moral philosophy to assess the impacts of this newly emerging technology. We provide specific examples of how the emergence of quantum technologies gives rise to normative and distributional ethical challenges. To this end, we propose a three-pillar research roadmap spanning technical foundations, governance and stakeholder responsibility, and risk management. Central to this approach is the need to integrate ethical constraints within the design and control of quantum systems, reflecting the close relationship between normative reasoning and physical implementation. We further introduce the “four C’s” (computability, complexity, consistency, and controllability) as a framework for assessing the feasibility of ethically constrained quantum computation, and illustrate how quantum technologies reshape established domains such as fair machine learning, privacy, and cryptography. Finally, we set out prospective research directions to help contribute to the development of the field. By integrating quantum information science with ethical theory and governance, this chapter provides a foundation for interdisciplinary research in quantum ethics.
Quantum information technology (QIT) encompasses a collection of emerging innovations-quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum sensing-that leverage unique properties of quantum systems, such as entanglement, superposition, and quantization, in order to process information in ways that are either classically impossible or infeasible. While QIT remains in relative infancy, its potential for unprecedented computational speedups, security of communication, and ultra-precise measurement foreshadows its impacts and risks across economic, strategic, and societal domains. We situate QIT within both its historical and technological context, focusing on the question of what is sui generis or unique about QIT with respect to both technical detail and governance imperatives. We identify how the unique ontological properties of quantum systems may raise novel legal conceptual dilemmas and propose a governance-stack model that aligns potential regulatory instruments with specific layers of the QIT technical stack, enabling precise risk assessment and stakeholder-focused regulation. By adopting an information-theoretic lens, we analyze how QIT's novel affordances-ranging from decryption of classical encryption to ultra-precise sensing-may potentially impact legal domains. Our contribution aims to lay a foundation for understanding QIT's legal implications, offering a framework to navigate its opportunities and risks.
The development of quantum technologies has been accelerating in the last decade, turning them into emerging technologies that need explicit attention by decision-makers at national funding agencies, companies, and governments. In this paper we consider the governance of quantum internet, a new type of network that distributes quantum information across distances and is developed under the promise that it can deliver intrinsically secure functions solely through its technical design. The paper gives an analysis of the functions quantum internet offers – from secure communication to linking quantum computers and quantum sensors – and then challenges this promise by arguing that trust, an essential precondition for users to adopt this technology, cannot be guaranteed by technical features alone. Instead, trust is fundamentally a social phenomenon, shaped by how quantum internet is governed, operated, and regulated. Therefore, the ultimate success of quantum internet in fulfilling its promise of secure communication will depend not just on its technical hardware and software but also on the policies and frameworks for running these capacities, and on the public trust in those policies and frameworks. With this argument we arrive at a number of recommendations to decision-makers for developing quantum internet and its governance in a way that quantum internet can be trusted for its promised capacities. For instance: organizations delivering hardware, operators, and regulation, should be kept apart to be independent sources for trust by users; third party organizations can provide independent checks to users of the operation of quantum internet; and transparency in policing of communication enables trust in the regulation of quantum internet.