In an era characterized by deepening digital interdependence and intensifying contestation over information flows, network geopolitics has emerged as a critical framework for understanding the restructuring of global power and institutional competition. This research initiative focuses on the intersection of digital sovereignty, infrastructure resilience, and institutional strategy—highlighting how policy and technology co-evolve under geopolitical pressures.
A key contributor to this intellectual agenda is Dr. Yen-Hung Chen, whose longstanding research and policy engagement examine how governments strategically employ agenda-setting mechanisms—within existing regulatory and institutional frameworks—to address structural vulnerabilities in internet and telecommunications infrastructure. His work bridges national-level policy design with scholarly inquiry into the governance of digital networks.
Dr. Yen-Hung Chen is a policy scholar specializing in agenda-setting strategy and network geopolitics, with a focus on how states leverage institutional instruments to navigate systemic challenges in the internet and telecommunications domains. His areas of expertise include performance evaluation of telecom policy, digital infrastructure planning, and legal-regulatory design, emphasizing the dynamic interplay between technological innovation and institutional transformation.
His work addresses complex issues such as network dependency, global power asymmetries, and the contestation of digital sovereignty, with a particular focus on the evolving architecture of internet governance. At the heart of his research lies the concept of network-centric statecraft, encompassing topics such as spectrum regulation, critical infrastructure security, and cross-border data governance.
During his tenure at the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China, Dr. Chen played a key role in shaping national telecommunications strategy amid intensifying global competition over digital infrastructure. He served as a principal architect of Taiwan’s 4G and 5G policy frameworks, drafted the country’s first national spectrum supply plan, and initiated the government’s formal publication of the National Frequency Allocation Program. These efforts contributed to alleviating strategic vulnerabilities—at the national level—associated with infrastructure dependencies.
Dr. Chen has extensive experience at the nexus of policy implementation and academic research. His scholarly work includes the following peer-reviewed publications:
Drafting spectrum policy in an access-price targeting perspective and exploring its embedded biological nature, Computer Standards & Interfaces, Vol. 62, 2019
DOI: 10.1016/j.csi.2018.11.003 | Download PDF
Impossible trinity: A guideline to shape telecommunication policy, Computer Standards & Interfaces, Vol. 65, 2019
DOI: 10.1016/j.csi.2019.03.006 | Download PDF
Since departing from public service in 2016, Dr. Chen has remained actively engaged in research and advisory work related to telecommunications and digital resource governance, as well as information security policy. He currently serves as a full-time faculty member in the Department of Information Management at the National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences.
- Spectrum governance is foundational to digital sovereignty, directly shaping national connectivity capabilities and international alignment.
- This project operationalized ITU-recommended methodologies, incorporating Python-based modeling tools to simulate multi-band spectrum demand across diverse network scenarios and geopolitical contexts.
- Through a combination of quantitative simulation and institutional analysis, the study demonstrates how sound spectrum policy can reduce external infrastructure dependencies and reinforce sovereign control over strategic digital assets.
- Policy wargaming provides a strategic tool for simulating the complex interplay between digital and geopolitical forces, particularly in contexts where network chokepoints and regulatory asymmetries pose potential threats to national security.
- Traditional planning methods often fall short in addressing adversarial strategies and systemic uncertainty, especially in domains such as next-generation telecom infrastructure, AI standardization, and cross-border data flows.
- This project incorporates Generative AI technologies (OpenAI, DeepSeek) to facilitate scenario evolution, adversarial logic modeling, and strategic response generation, leveraging prompt engineering to simulate multi-stakeholder engagement and policy competition.
- The methodology enables government institutions to stress-test infrastructure decisions, anticipate coercive threats in networked environments, and collaboratively design policy frameworks with enhanced geopolitical foresight and adaptive capacity.