The Foreign Service Journal, June 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2021 25 political discussions alone. Moreover, U.N. GGE reports offer voluntary and nonbinding recommendations. Although the U.S. can try to enforce them unilaterally, they are not subject to U.N. sanctions unless nonadherence violates international law. Meanwhile, multilateral bargaining at the United Nations to establish norms has stalled, and arguably backtracked, with China working to promote “cyber sovereignty” as the organizing principle of cyber governance and Russia organizing an alterna- tive norms-establishing forum to the U.N. GGE process, the so-called U.N. Open-Ended Working Group. Why this is happening is not difficult to discern. Much of the behavior that we consider unacceptable is producing benefits for its sponsors that far outweigh the costs they incur. Norms emerge through practice, and they mature through political and legal discourse. To achieve a convergence of expectations around the behaviors we deem advantageous, we must engage in this norm-construction competition. This requires explicitly linking the promotion of norms of responsible behavior with cyberspace diplomacy and operations that expose and contest behavior inconsistent with such norms. Forging a coalition of partners for agile collaboration and continuous pressure against authoritarian adversaries has the best chance of producing a convergence of expectations on acceptable behavior. Only then can we define a framework of responsible state behavior and consequences for irrespon- sible acts. n Cyberspace has emerged as a major arena of conflict between liberal and illiberal forces across the globe.