CYBERSPACEConfronting Reality in Cyberspace: Foreign Policy for a Fragmented Internet
The global internet—a vast matrix of telecommunications, fiber optics, and satellite networks—is in large part a creation of the United States. Moreover, U.S. strategic, economic, political, and foreign policy interests were served by the global, open internet. The United States now confronts a starkly different reality. The utopian vision of an open, reliable, and secure global network has not been achieved and is unlikely ever to be realized. Today, the internet is less free, more fragmented, and less secure.
The Council on Foreign Relations has issued a report, titled Confronting Reality in Cyberspace: Foreign Policy for a Fragmented Internet,
The global internet—a vast matrix of telecommunications, fiber optics, and satellite networks—is in large part a creation of the United States.Moreover, U.S. strategic, economic, political, and foreign policy interests were served by the global, open internet.The United States now confronts a starkly different reality. The utopian vision of an open, reliable, and secure global network has not been achieved and is unlikely ever to be realized. Today, the internet is less free, more fragmented, and less secure.
Executive Summary
The global internet—a vast matrix of telecommunications, fiber optics, and satellite networks—is in large part a creation of the United States. The technologies that underpin the internet grew out of federal research projects, and U.S. companies innovated, commercialized, and globalized the technology. The internet’s basic structure—a reliance on the private sector and the technical community, relatively light regulatory oversight, and the protection of speech and the promotion of the free flow of information—reflected American values.
Moreover, U.S. strategic, economic, political, and foreign policy interests were served by the global, open internet. Washington long believed that its vision of the internet would ultimately prevail and that other countries would be forced to adjust to or miss out on the benefits of a global and open internet.
The United States now confronts a starkly different reality. The utopian vision of an open, reliable, and secure global network has not been achieved and is unlikely ever to be realized. Today, the internet is less free, more fragmented, and less secure.
Countries around the world now exert a greater degree of control over the internet, localizing data, blocking and moderating content, and launching political influence campaigns. Nation-states conduct massive cyber campaigns, and the number of disruptive attacks is growing. Adversaries are making it more difficult for the United States to operate in cyberspace. Parts of the internet are dark marketplaces for vandalism, crime, theft, and extortion.
Malicious actors have exploited social media platforms, spread disinformation and misinformation, incited disparate forms of political participation that can sway elections, engendered fierce violence, and promoted toxic forms of civic division.
At the same time, the modern internet remains a backbone for critical civilian infrastructure around the world. It is the main artery of global digital trade. It has broken barriers for sharing information, supports grassroots organization and marginalized communities,
