Digital resilience in wartime: The case of Ukraine

Abstract

AbstractA key topic in digital government is how to improve public services. The global pandemic focused attention on the use of digital in the context of crisis. Here, we consider how a digital innovation in response to a different type of crisis, examining Ukraine's response to Russia's invasion of 2022. We describe how the government engaged in what we characterize as digital resilience, that is, the use of digital government capacities to maintain basic societal functions in crisis situations. Prior to the war, Ukraine upgraded its digital government capacities. The war provided the impetus to speed up the use of those capacities, which were used not just for defensive military purposes, but also to provide continuity to the civilian aspects of government, including the provision of digital documentation and aid to displaced people. In doing so, digital capacities provided a key basis for Ukraine's resistance.