DASICON 2027: Who Governs the Future?
When: Friday, 26 February 2027
Where: Diplomatische Akademie Wien - Vienna School of International Studies
The Diplomatic Academy Students Initiative Conference (DASICON) is an annual international conference fully organised by current students of the Vienna School of International Studies. Addressed to the general public, it offers a platform for international experts, students, and key stakeholders to engage in timely and critical discussions on the future of diplomacy and global governance.
The 2027 edition, titled "Who Governs the Future? New Frontiers of Power between States, Algorithms, and Institutions," departs from the premise that power is being redistributed across multiple spheres at once. Artificial intelligence is reshaping economies, societies, and security structures; outer space is emerging as a new arena of geopolitics; energy and critical resources are central to global competition; populism continues to challenge democratic institutions; and the democratizing promise of social media is increasingly questioned as algorithms, platform governance, and concentrated ownership determine what information is seen, amplified, or suppressed.
In light of these developments, the conference argues that it is time to rethink how risk, power, and influence are defined in the twenty-first century. The critical question is no longer only who holds power today, but who will be able to govern the forces that shape tomorrow. DASICON 2027 sets out to test the assumption that the actors who master these emerging fields will play a decisive role in determining the international order.
Are these fields truly decisive for the future? How are states, institutions, and societies preparing for the risks they create? How do they transform the international order? And what are the key lessons for the future of diplomacy?
Through five panels, DASICON 2027 brings together experts, practitioners, and students to examine:
Artificial intelligence: whether we still control AI or it controls us, with a special focus on the environmental toll of AI infrastructure in terms of electricity consumption, water pollution, and the impact on local communities.
Space Law: how international institutions can modernize space law to prevent the privatization of a global commons and manage the security implications of space as a domain of conflict.
Post-Populism: what replaces illiberal forces, drawing on Hungary's experience under and after Orbán to understand what post-populist recovery demands.
Energy and Security: whether the answer to supply-chain fragility in semiconductors, critical minerals, and computational infrastructure lies in deeper cooperation or in strategic autonomy.
New Media: who controls what we see in an information environment shaped by algorithmic amplification, concentrated ownership, foreign interference, and AI-generated disinformation.