January 12, 2022
Geopolitics Keeps Overruling Cyber Norms, So What’s the Alternative?
Whenever a new technology emerges as a national security issue, governments want to establish norms of behavior. We are seeing it with AI, with unmanned systems, with hypersonic technology — and we have seen it with cyberspace.
Setting norms can be useful. The process itself can have benefits: it requires governments to communicate and develop a better understanding of how different nations view challenging issues. When norms are agreed upon, even if voluntary and non-binding, they can make explicit what may be mutually beneficial to states.
Once governments accept the limits of political cyber norms, they can then adapt to the messier reality of cyberspace today.
Norms, however, will always struggle when they begin to hit up against the core interests of the nations involved. As cyberspace is now intrinsically tied into traditional geopolitical contests and conflicts—that is, core interests — norms can alter behavior only so much. But hope is not lost: Once governments accept the limits of political cyber norms, they can then adapt to the messier reality of cyberspace today.
Read the full article from Breaking Defense.
More from CNAS
-
America Needs Clear Standards for China Tech Decoupling
Commentary
This broad, virtually unchecked authority to ban Chinese apps and products resembles more of a loaded gun than a considered policy....
By Vivek Chilukuri
-
What Is ‘Sovereign AI’ Anyway?
Podcast
Pablo Chavez, Adjunct Senior Fellow with CNAS's Technology and National Security Program, joins POLITICO Tech to discuss how the term “sovereign AI” gets thrown around a lot i...
By Pablo Chavez
-
U.S. Chip Controls and the Future of AI Compute
Podcast
That escalated quickly! Emily and Geoff discuss why the U.S. aim to deny China access to the computing power necessary for frontier AI capabilities has led to an ever expandin...
By Emily Kilcrease, Geoffrey Gertz & Pablo Chavez
-
Asymmetry and AI: The Battle for Power
Podcast
Paul Scharre, Vice President and Director of Studies at CNAS, joins Zero Pressure to discuss the world of asymmetric warfare, a term used to describe imbalances in conflict. F...
By Paul Scharre
