{"id":47744,"date":"2019-05-22T13:17:34","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T03:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=47744"},"modified":"2019-05-22T13:17:34","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T03:17:34","slug":"will-there-be-one-asean-voice-on-cyber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/will-there-be-one-asean-voice-on-cyber\/","title":{"rendered":"Will there be one ASEAN voice on cyber?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

ASEAN, the common refrain goes, moves slowly, especially on sensitive issues that touch on sovereignty and security, where the pace of consensus-forming adjusts to fit the comfort level of the most hesitant member state.<\/p>\n

Nowhere is this more true than when it comes to cyber issues. Member states approach cyber from various angles: telecommunications, internal security, information technology and law enforcement, to name a few. Consider the ASEAN Ministerial Conference on Cybersecurity (AMCC) held in Singapore during International Cyber Week in September: countries were represented by ministers or senior officials from a whole range of portfolios\u2014cybersecurity (Singapore), communications (Malaysia, Laos, Brunei), digital economy (Thailand), information security (Vietnam) and home affairs\u00a0(Cambodia).<\/p>\n

Given the myriad lenses through which the issues are viewed, it\u2019s easy to underappreciate what ASEAN achieved over the course of 2018 in the cyber realm. The April 2018 leaders\u2019 statement on cybersecurity cooperation<\/a> tasked relevant bodies to identify a concrete list of non-binding, practical norms of state behaviour. The ministerial conference followed up in September, reaching an agreement in principle that international law, norms of state behaviour (with specific reference to the voluntary, non-binding norms recommended in the 2015 report of the UN Group of Governmental Experts<\/a> on developments in information and telecommunications in the context of international security,\u00a0or UN GGE for short), and practical confidence-building measures are essential for stability in cyberspace. Some of these gains can trace their lineage directly to the roadmap of the\u00a02017\u00a0ASEAN cybersecurity cooperation strategy, which had at its heart a focus on norms, cooperation and capacity-building.<\/p>\n

The discussion platforms of choice also now seem to have resolved themselves. It\u2019s now clear that the AMCC will be the key ASEAN platform for discussing cyber matters. Other platforms\u2014such as the ASEAN Regional Forum Inter-sessional Meeting on Security of and in the Use of ICT, and the ASEAN Defence Ministers\u2019 Meeting-Plus Experts\u2019 Working Group Meeting on Cyber Security\u2014will be the critical forums for engaging external partners.<\/p>\n

A key facet of cyber cooperation, and one in which tangible progress is being made, is in upskilling, levelling up and knowledge transfer. There\u2019s an acute need for this given the\u00a0differing levels of resourcing among members states.\u00a0Myanmar\u2019s CERT, for example, had just five people in 2017<\/a>. (A CERT is a national computer emergency response (or readiness) team.)<\/p>\n

While CERT\u2013CERT cooperation will remain to some degree behind the scenes, in the coming years we should expect to hear more on the progress of the\u00a0ASEAN CERT maturity framework, which provides a common blueprint to assess the maturity of national CERTs. Other key mechanisms\u00a0include the S$10 million ASEAN Cyber Capacity Programme (launched by Singapore in 2016), which aims to boost cybersecurity know-how across the region. Under the program\u2019s aegis, the Singapore\u2013ASEAN Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence will be launched in 2019. The centre will in turn presumably find ways to harmonise its efforts with the Bangkok-based\u00a0ASEAN\u2013Japan Cybersecurity Capacity Building Centre, launched in September 2018.<\/p>\n

But beyond the high politics of cyber dialogue and the nuts and bolts of technical cooperation, there are pressing questions in terms of how ASEAN members view their digital futures. Many countries struggling with cyberattacks, fake news or disinformation campaigns may be remaking their regulatory regimes through the prism of cyber as a threat vector. Vietnam\u2019s cybersecurity law, which took effect on 1 January, is aimed ostensibly at preventing cyberattacks. It bans internet users from spreading \u2018anti-state\u2019 information, and has been criticised by some observers as totalitarian. Thailand\u2019s cybersecurity bill, which passed in February, has general clauses\u00a0pertaining to the authorities\u2019 right to seize data and equipment.<\/p>\n

The trifecta\u2014viewing cyber from the perspectives of opportunity, data protection, and information control\u2014is a source of continual tension. Nations need to be able to hold these tensions and to assess and act in a balanced way. If the balance is lost, countries might simply remake themselves in a more totalitarian way\u00a0in order to protect themselves.<\/p>\n

These tensions will inevitably affect states\u2019 positions when it comes to the debate on international cyber norms. ASEAN leaders have given a nod to the importance of the UN\u00a0GGE norms<\/a>, but there\u2019s a competing vision: an open-ended working group, sponsored by Russia, is also working within the UN to develop cyber norms. Russian attempts to secure buy-in have been canny<\/a>, referencing inclusiveness, and participation in norms-shaping. The working group may in the end be more attractive to many nations than the UN GGE simply because it seems to give more of a nod to countries\u2019 concerns about information security<\/a> and fake news.<\/p>\n

There are no easy answers, and discussions over coming months on, and in, the concurrent UN processes will say much. It should be observed here that track 2 mechanisms for cyber, which seem to have taken something of a backseat in ASEAN, do have a role. Informal dialogues can allow member states to share challenges and ideas openly, and help to build shared understandings. An example is the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific, or CSCAP<\/a>. Think tanks working on these issues can\u00a0take the lessons from such meetings to inform and guide their stakeholders. And the field shouldn\u2019t be limited to ASEAN nations. Think tanks further afield with well-thought-out cyber engagement strategies can, when they have knowledge of ASEAN states\u2019 concerns and sensitivities, play a useful role in the norms-shaping debate<\/a> at the track 2 level.<\/p>\n

Member states now clearly want to have an ASEAN voice in the international cyber norms conversation. But how coherent or unified that voice will be likely is dependent on three things: an appreciation of internal cyber threats without being consumed by them, a nuanced awareness of the agendas and power plays within the international cyber norms debate, and a clear-headed drive to look to the best ideas in the field, whether they come from within or outside of ASEAN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ASEAN, the common refrain goes, moves slowly, especially on sensitive issues that touch on sovereignty and security, where the pace of consensus-forming adjusts to fit the comfort level of the most hesitant member state. Nowhere …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":958,"featured_media":47747,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[189,2138,168,92],"class_list":["post-47744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-asean","tag-cybersecurity","tag-norms","tag-united-nations"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWill there be one ASEAN voice on cyber? | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/will-there-be-one-asean-voice-on-cyber\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Will there be one ASEAN voice on cyber? | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ASEAN, the common refrain goes, moves slowly, especially on sensitive issues that touch on sovereignty and security, where the pace of consensus-forming adjusts to fit the comfort level of the most hesitant member state. 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