The Quantum Diplomacy Council
Why Quantum Diplomacy
The quantum era will arrive on technical timelines, not political ones
Quantum technologies will redraw the boundaries of encryption, intelligence, and industrial advantage. The decisions that determine who is ready, on cryptography, standards, export controls, and access, are being made now, years before the technology matures. The Council gives this anticipatory discipline a neutral, multilateral home.
Advise
Governments and international organizations
Convene
Diplomats and Quantum leaders across divides
Publish
Analysis for the Global Report
Build Capacity
Quantum expertise in Public and Private Sectors
What is Quantum Diplomacy?
Quantum diplomacy is the conduct of international relations with, about, and through quantum technologies, by states and non-state actors, to manage the security transition they impose, shape the standards and rules that will govern them, and ensure the quantum revolution widens rather than narrows the circle of nations that benefit from it.
Quantum diplomacy is the youngest branch of tech diplomacy, but its institutions are forming fast. The United Nations proclaimed 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, led by UNESCO. The Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator has established the Open Quantum Institute at CERN, an early experiment in multilateral access to quantum computing. NIST has published the first post-quantum cryptography standards, setting the clock for a global migration of digital infrastructure. And quantum has entered the machinery of statecraft: national quantum strategies, export controls on quantum systems, and technology alliances that treat quantum capability as strategic capability.
Building on this emerging scholarship, and applying the WAT framework for tech diplomacy developed by the Tech Diplomacy Global Institute, our definition spans three connected dimensions:
Diplomacy with quantum actors. Diplomatic engagement with the ecosystem building the quantum future: research laboratories and universities, quantum hardware and software companies, standards bodies, and the scientific community. Quantum expertise is scarce and concentrated, and diplomacy must reach the places where it resides.
Diplomacy about quantum. The negotiation of the rules and institutions that will govern quantum technologies: cryptographic standards, export control regimes, research security frameworks, and the balance between scientific openness and national security.
Diplomacy through quantum capability. The strategic dimension of quantum in statecraft: sovereign quantum strategies, secure quantum communications between governments, and national positioning through trusted infrastructure and standards leadership.
Quantum also carries a paradox that only diplomacy can resolve. The states that master quantum technologies first gain decisive advantages in intelligence, security, and industry, which drives competition and secrecy. Yet no state can protect its own systems without international cooperation on cryptographic standards, and no state benefits from a world where quantum capability belongs to a handful of actors. Competition and cooperation are both rational at once. The Quantum Diplomacy Council exists to manage that tension: a neutral, multilateral body where governments, international organizations, researchers, and industry prepare for the quantum age together.
The Challenge
A transition the world has agreed to start but not to share
The quantum challenge is not a lack of awareness. Advanced states have quantum strategies, standards bodies have published post-quantum cryptography, and alliances have declared quantum a priority. The challenge is that preparation is radically uneven, and the diplomacy connecting these efforts barely exists.
Three tensions define the current moment:
The migration gap. Post-quantum standards exist, but migrating national digital infrastructure takes a decade of sustained effort. A minority of governments have begun. Every year of delay extends the window in which data harvested today can be decrypted tomorrow.
The quantum divide. Quantum capability is concentrated in fewer hands than any previous strategic technology: a small set of states, companies, and laboratories. Most of the world’s nations have no quantum strategy, no access to quantum systems, and no seat in the forums where the rules are being written. Left unaddressed, the quantum divide will be deeper than the digital divide it follows.
The securitization spiral. Export controls, research security measures, and visa restrictions are multiplying faster than the cooperation frameworks that should balance them. Applied without coordination, they fragment the scientific openness on which quantum progress itself depends, and push the field into closed blocs.
The Council’s work addresses all three: accelerating the transition, widening access, and keeping the door to cooperation open as competition intensifies.
The Council’s Mandate
What the Council is charged to do
The Council operates under a two-year renewable mandate from the Institute; the current mandate runs from 2026 to 2028. Within it, the Quantum Diplomacy Council brings together quantum scientists, cryptographers, former ministers, and industry leaders to:
- Guide governments through the post-quantum transition, from cryptographic inventory to migration strategy, with particular attention to nations without dedicated quantum expertise
- Advance international coordination on quantum standards, export controls, and research security, so that necessary protections do not fragment global science
- Widen equitable access to quantum capability, supporting emerging economies in building quantum literacy, strategies, and partnerships
- Prepare foreign ministries for quantum-era negotiations, translating between the scientific community and the diplomatic profession
- Contribute the Council’s analysis to the Global Technology Diplomacy Report and support the quantum curriculum of the Tech Diplomacy Global Executive Program
Focus Areas
Where the Council concentrates its work
For its 2027–2028 mandate, the Council concentrates its work on five focus areas:
01. The post-quantum transition.
The diplomacy of the global migration to quantum-resistant cryptography: shared timelines, mutual assurance between governments, and support for states beginning the journey.
02. Quantum standards and interoperability.
The international standards race in quantum computing, communications, and sensing, and how states can shape outcomes through standards bodies rather than inherit them.
03. The quantum divide.
Equitable access to quantum capability: multilateral access models, regional quantum initiatives, and the place of emerging economies in the quantum ecosystem.
04. Export controls and research security.
Balancing legitimate security concerns with the international collaboration that quantum science requires, and preventing a spiral into closed technological blocs.
05. Quantum and the security agenda.
The intersection of quantum with cybersecurity and AI, from harvest-now-decrypt-later risks to quantum sensing, in close coordination with the Institute’s Cyber Diplomacy and AI Diplomacy Councils.
HOW WE WORK
The Council convenes its annual plenary at the Tech Diplomacy Global Forum in Paris and meets virtually throughout the year. Its members contribute to the Global Technology Diplomacy Report, advise governments through TDGI’s advisory services, and support the quantum curriculum of the Tech Diplomacy Global Executive Program.
Each year, the Council selects a small number of priority questions and produces practical outputs: briefings that a foreign ministry can act on, frameworks a negotiator can use, and recommendations that connect the worlds of quantum science and diplomatic practice.
Who should join the Council
Membership in the Quantum Diplomacy Council is by application and invitation. We welcome candidates who bring one or more of the following:
- Senior diplomatic or government experience with technology portfolios, such as Tech Ambassadors, national quantum coordinators, and senior negotiators
- Recognized expertise in quantum science, post-quantum cryptography, or quantum policy
- Leadership experience in quantum or deep-tech companies with international engagement
- Perspectives from regions underrepresented in global quantum debates
Council members serve in their personal capacity for a renewable two-year term, aligned with the Council’s mandate. The Council maintains geographic, gender, and sectoral balance as a matter of principle: the quantum age cannot be designed by a handful of capitals alone.
Applications for the 2026–2028 mandate are open until 30 September 2026.
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