The Internet Is Undermining America’s Power

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[Commentary] The US has incomparable resources, but it may never be as strong as it is in cyberspace as it is today. Cyber power may be a particularly ephemeral form of power. China is developing new competing technologies. India, Europe, and other friends hold different visions of how to manage the Internet and protect privacy. The gap between the interests of American technology companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon and Washington is growing. The global, open Internet, a wellspring of US economic, political, and military power, is fragmenting as Beijing, Moscow, Tehran and many others are assert cyber sovereignty.

In order to address the challenges of cyberspace, the US must at least accomplish three things: enhance cybersecurity defense at home, create a working truce between the government and the private sector, and build a coalition of like-minded countries in the international sphere. Washington will have to funnel new money to research, development and innovation in cybersecurity; forge agreements with the private sector on the sharing of data; and, with its friends in Europe and Asia, clearly define what behaviors are acceptable in cyberspace and how it plans to respond if lines are crossed. The US will have to be more limited in its ambitions but more assertive in their pursuit. While it should continue to promote and espouse the virtues of an open, global, and secure Internet, the US must prepare for a more likely future—a highly contested, nationally divided cyberspace.

[Adam Segal is the Maurice R. Greenberg Senior Fellow for China Studies and Director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations]


The Internet Is Undermining America’s Power