Foundations for a Lens of Quantum Governance

Abstract

The second quantum revolution is a revolution of information. Advances in quantum computation, communication, and sensing offer new capabilities while raising questions about how quantum infrastructures will be organised, accessed, and governed. We argue that their significance for governance lies not in transforming political principles, but in how their technical and infrastructural requirements may affect existing relationships of authority, responsibility, legitimacy, and power. This paper develops a quantum governance lens that connects governance scholarship with quantum information science, examining interactions between technical design, institutional arrangements, and infrastructural dependencies. We apply this lens to five areas: quantum computation, quantum key distribution, Quantum Byzantine Agreement, blind quantum computation, and dual-use quantum sensing. These applications illustrate how technical capabilities may influence access, trust, privacy, oversight, and accountability, while demonstrating that technical guarantees cannot resolve institutional questions independently. We conclude that quantum technologies do not necessarily introduce unique governance challenges or require entirely new governance frameworks. Rather, they provide a context in which established questions of legitimacy, accountability, and equity must be reconsidered in relation to emerging technological capabilities and institutional choices.