The United States Department of State on May 6, 2024, released a landmark document, the International Cyberspace and Digital Policy Strategy. The strategy outlines a new approach to international cooperation on technology, emphasizing a concept called digital solidarity.
Digital solidarity, according to the State Department's summary, is a call for collaboration. It recognizes that a secure and prosperous digital future can only be achieved by working together. The concept is simple, or so it would seem: urging countries, companies, and civil society organizations to all come to the table with a shared goal of building a more secure, inclusive, and rights-respecting digital world.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken highlighted the urgency of this approach, stating: "We are in a pivotal period of international relations, characterized by acute competition between nations, and shared global challenges like climate change, food and health security, and inclusive economic growth. Technology will play an increasingly critical role in addressing these challenges.… The United States will work with any country or actor that is committed to developing and deploying technology that is open, safe, and secure, that promotes inclusive growth, that fosters resilient and democratic societies, and that empowers all people."
The United States International Cyberspace & Digital Policy Strategy focuses on three core principles:
- Security and Inclusion: Promoting a secure and inclusive cyberspace based on international law and human rights
- Integration: Weaving together cybersecurity, sustainable development, and technological innovation for a holistic approach
- Diplomacy: Utilizing all available diplomatic tools to shape the global digital landscape
To achieve these goals, the strategy outlines four key areas of action:
- Building a Strong Digital Ecosystem: This includes promoting open standards, internet access, and secure infrastructure
- Aligning Data Governance: Collaborating with partners on how data is collected, used, and protected
- Countering Threats: Working together to combat cybercrime, malicious state actors, and threats to critical infrastructure
- Capacity Building: Helping other countries develop their own cybersecurity and digital capabilities
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The strategy emphasizes the importance of collaboration beyond just governments. Nathaniel Fick, Ambassador at Large for Cyberspace and Digital Policy, underlines this point: "We need to do that among states, of course, but also with companies and civil society organizations in a true multi-stakeholder partnership."
Josephine Wolff, Associate Professor of Cybersecurity Policy and Computer Science and Engineering Director at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, had this to say about the new strategy:
"There's a lot to be excited about in this strategy, including the emphasis on international cooperation, the focus on engaging both state and non-state actors, and the commitment to providing rapid incident response resources," Wolff said. "The crucial question for the State Department will be whether they can get countries that have, in the past, been a little bit wary of the United States' central role in internet governance to work with them on these issues to build cooperation beyond just the usual suspects."
According to the full strategy's introduction: "The United States seeks to work with allies, partners, and stakeholders across the globe to shape the design, development, governance, and use of cyberspace and digital technologies to advance economic prosperity and inclusion; enhance security and combat cybercrime; promote and protect the exercise of human rights, democracy, and the rule of the law; and address transnational challenges. The United States believes in the critical role that the responsible uses of digital technologies and interconnected networks play in empowering people, and that an open, interoperable, secure, and reliable Internet enables new solutions to global challenges. Autocratic states and other actors, however, have used cyber and digital tools to threaten international peace and stability, harm others, exert malign influence, and undermine the exercise of human rights. An innovative, rights-respecting international cyberspace and digital technology policy strategy is foundational to U.S. strategic, security, economic, and foreign policy interests."
The strategy is broken down into action areas, including:
Action Area 1: Promote, Build, and Maintain an Open, Inclusive, Secure, and Resilient Digital Ecosystem
Action Area 2: Align Rights-Respecting Approaches to Digital and Data Governance with International Partners
Action Area 3: Advance Responsible State Behavior in Cyberspace and Counter Threats to Cyberspace and Critical Infrastructure by Building Coalitions and Engaging Partners
Action Area 4: Strengthen and Build International Partner Digital Policy and Cyber Capacity
The strategy's conclusion is a nice summary of the reasoning behind it:
"As the NSS and NCS note, the 2020s are a decisive decade, and actions taken now will shape the contours of cyberspace, digital technologies, and the digital economy for the future. As it implements this strategy, the Department of State will work with Congress and interagency partners to evaluate current cyber authorities and to amend or create authorities as needed for the Department to keep pace with evolving cyber and digital technologies.
Building innovative, secure, and rights-respecting digital ecosystems is a process that will extend beyond the timespan of this strategy, and likely to be characterized by progress, pauses, and reversals. There will be, however, some early signposts that will indicate the United States, allies, and partners are moving forward.
First, the United States, allies, and partners, along with the private sector and civil society, will build on the early successes of the G7-Hiroshima Code of Conduct, the Biden-Harris Executive Order on AI, and the UK AI Safety Summit. We will reach consensus on guiding principles that foster innovation and the development of responsible AI as well as make significant investments to build the knowledge and infrastructure necessary to measure, evaluate, and verify advanced AI systems, including through the launch of the U.S. AI Safety Institute. We will advance global norms on the responsible and rights-respecting use of AI-enabled technologies.
Second, the United States allies, and partners, along with the private sector, will develop common understandings and shared principles for security and trustworthiness in subsea cable, cloud services, and data centers and will increase support for extending access to cloud services to emerging economies.
Third, the United States, allies, and partners will succeed in pushing forward more action-oriented discussions at the UN on international security issues in cyberspace. These discussions will focus on how member states can work together to implement critical elements of the framework for responsible state behavior and on building all states' capacity to manage cyber-related threats.
Fourth, the Department of State will draw on the Cyberspace, Digital Connectivity, and Related Technologies Fund to provide rapid incident response and cyber aid quickly and effectively, as well as longer-term capacity and resilience building. These strategic investments will not only strengthen the role of the United States as a digital partner, but also generate larger, self-sustaining investments by host countries in their own cybersecurity and digital transformation.
Moving forward, the United States will strive for a future in which cyberspace and digital technologies are used to advance economic prosperity and inclusion, enhance security, promote and protect human rights and democracy, and address transnational challenges. The Department of State will build and extend digital solidarity to partners across the globe. The United States recognizes the need to work together to align approaches to data and digital governance and to promote the research, development, and deployment of critical and emerging technologies. The United States seeks to be the partner of choice in improving cybersecurity, building resilience, responding to, and recovering from malicious cyber activity. Digital solidarity aims to connect people and information like never before, fostering a more inclusive, secure, prosperous, rights-respecting, safe, and equitable world."
