Establish content validity of the RSCM measurement framework

Establish the content validity of the Readiness–Sovereignty Capability Model’s five readiness dimensions, five indigenous cryptographic-capacity layers, five post-quantum-control sub-variables, ordinal anchors, and classification thresholds through expert elicitation or empirical dimension analysis on a larger sample.

Background

The paper presents the Readiness–Sovereignty Capability Model (RSCM) as a proposed, operationalized, and reliability-tested instrument for measuring national post-quantum readiness and cryptographic sovereignty. Its dimensions and ordinal scoring anchors are conceptually grounded in prior literature and tested for coding reliability, but they were not derived through a formal content-validation procedure such as expert elicitation, a Delphi study, or empirical dimension reduction.

The authors identify validation of the dimensions and anchors as the most important remaining measurement-development task. Resolving it would determine whether the selected readiness, capacity, and post-quantum-control dimensions are sufficiently comprehensive and distinct, and whether the five-level scale and classification boundaries are defensible beyond the authors’ design choices.

References

Establishing the content validity of the dimensions and anchors, through expert elicitation or empirical dimension analysis on a larger sample, is the most important measurement-development step left open, and until it is done the framework should be read as a proposed, operationalized, and reliability-tested measurement model rather than a validated instrument.

— A Global Readiness and Sovereignty Capability Model for Post-Quantum Cryptography Migration  (2609.18477 - Bouke, 16 Sep 2026) in Section 8, subsection “Construct validity”

A fully independent external criterion for post-quantum control, such as an audited registry of national quantum-safe production, does not yet exist, and building or obtaining one is the single most valuable next step for validating the central construct rather than only its separation from readiness.

— A Global Readiness and Sovereignty Capability Model for Post-Quantum Cryptography Migration  (2609.18477 - Bouke, 16 Sep 2026) in Section 8, subsection “Measurement validity”