Methodology

1. 01

   What is measured

   Documented initiatives, infrastructure, decisions and frameworks. The Observatory does not claim to measure sovereignty as a whole, and gives no country a score.

2. 02

   Selection

   An entry must carry at least one identifiable, dated source. Primary sources come first; institutional, academic and specialist-press publications are distinguished by their nature.

3. 03

   Statuses

   “Operational”, “under way”, “announced” and “suspended” describe the documented state of an initiative, not its quality or its actual effect.

4. 04

   Comparability

   Two figures are compared only when their geography, period, definition and method are compatible. Otherwise they sit side by side, unranked.

5. 05

   Uncertainty and gaps

   A missing figure is shown as missing. Proprietary, outdated or incomparable data are not turned into an estimate.

6. 06

   What this does not allow us to conclude

   A data centre, a law or a satellite is not enough to establish a country’s autonomy. Sovereignty is understood here as a capacity to choose, to withstand, to govern and to negotiate.

Data— The datasets, their variables and their limits.Sources— Find the original document.