The Foreign Service Journal, June 2018

26 JUNE 2018 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL T he internet and networked technolo- gies have enabled amazing social and economic progress around the world. As new technologies come online and more people are connected around the world, the potential benefits of cyberspace seem boundless. Yet at the same time, technical threats in cyberspace posed by state and nonstate actors have dramatically increased in both sophistication and number, and the potential and actual impact of those threats has grown exponentially. There are also serious policy threats to the very nature, structure and governance of the internet as we know it, including unprecedented attempts to undermine democratic processes and an increasing drive by repressive regimes to suppress and control online discourse and undermine internet freedom. The rise of the internet and cyber technologies constitutes one of the central foreign policy issues of the 21st century. BY CHR I S PA I NTER ON CYBER DIPLOMACY FOCUS DIPLOMACY IN CYBERSPACE Chris Painter was the first State Department coor- dinator for cyber issues, serving from 2011 to 2017. He currently serves as a commissioner for the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace, among other positions. ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/MONSITJ