The Foreign Service Journal, November 2022

26 NOVEMBER 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL they wanted to do, which is to elevate this, to be more proactive, to have a forward-leaning vision. A challenge we face is that we have less legislation in the United States on cyber and digital issues than Europe has. So, we can talk about our values; we can talk about the vision we have for the internet. But it is harder to say to a country, here’s how you should or should not regulate content moderation when we don’t have that legislation. We do look to Congress and the White House to set the national-level policy. And while we’re waiting for that, we have things like the Declaration for the Future of the Internet [launched in April 2022 with 60 countries signed on], which sets out broad-based principles. We can all agree that internet shut- downs are a bad thing. And so, we need to engage on things like internet shutdowns, even if we don’t have domestic legislation on that. AFSA: What top priorities, both structural and strategic, are you focusing on right now? JB: If we look at the three pillars of our work—national security, economics, and human rights—first of all, we’re trying to integrate all of what we’re doing [into] a functional bureau strategy. We’re extremely involved in the United Nations Open Ended Working Group [on Developments in the Field of Informa- tion and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security], which sets the norms for how states should behave in cyberspace. On economics, I think we have to continue to really focus on the security aspect. How can we secure our entire internet ecosystem? 5G remains critically important, but it goes beyond 5G. It goes to things like undersea cables. It goes to data centers. There’s a whole range of things we’re doing there. We are trying to engage with Europe and with Asia on regulations in standards to make sure that our companies and our vision for the internet continue to play an important role. Then, on the democracy front, again, it’s this question of addressing content moderation, privacy, surveillance, helping to create the internet of the future that we want to see. There are a lot of priorities, and we have to figure out how to integrate them all. AFSA: Can you discuss how data science fits into the goals for the bureau? JB: That is an active question in the bureau. We have the three policy units, and then we have a strategic planning and com- munications office that does bureauwide functions. We’ve talked about whether or not we’re going to hire a data scientist into that office; but pending that, we’re working with M/SS, the Office of Management Strategy and Solutions. They have a whole data science group. AFSA: How do you see this new bureau being an asset or collaborator with bureaus at State handling human rights issues? JB: We have the digital freedom unit, which is the smallest of our units. It has a coordinator, not a deputy assistant secretary. The design was that we collaborate and integrate closely with the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL). We have to look at where we can lean in and where the nugget of the issue is cyberspace and digital policy, as opposed to human rights. We’ve been looking at content moderation, information integrity, privacy, surveillance, these sorts of issues, again in very close cooperation with DRL. Another good example would be the Freedom Online Coalition (FOC), which the U.S. is going to chair in 2023. [The FOC is a partnership of 34 governments work- ing to enhance internet freedom that was founded in 2011 in the Netherlands at the initiative of the Dutch Foreign Ministry.] DRL will be the hub of FOC work, but we will feed into and advise and support DRL in doing so. AFSA: How will the State Department ensure that cyber norms are more than just a piece of paper where countries like Russia or China are concerned? JB: That is probably the question of the future, and it cuts across so many levels, not just cyberspace. Russia invaded another country. Its adherence to any norms has to be called into question. The question gets to the deterrence piece. Once you know what the norms are, you can call out a viola- tor. Can we get a coalition together to call out who violated the norm? Okay, we’ve done that. What’s [our] reaction? Is it The job of our bureau in the State Department is to lead, coordinate, and elevate cybersecurity and digital policy for the U.S. government.