Ophélie Coelho is an Associate Research Fellow at IRIS where she contributes to the work of the Geopolitical Observatory of Digital and Emerging Technologies.
She is the author of Géopolitique du numérique : l’impérialisme à pas de géants (Les Éditions de l’Atelier, 2023), in which she examines the rise of global technology companies and their role in the reconfiguration of power.
Her academic background – a Master’s 2 in International Relations, complemented by studies in the history of science and the sociology of technology – combined with solid professional experience in the IT industry, has nurtured a resolutely interdisciplinary approach.
She is currently working on a thesis entitled “Connection Points, Fault Lines: digitalization as a vector of power change and systemic risks in Southern Africa”, which extends the reflections developed in her book. In particular, she uses the concepts of nodal power, structural power and chains of dependence to examine the effects of digital transformations on regional balances of power, forms of state sovereignty, and the asymmetries induced by private control of infrastructures that have become essential.