For the People and By the People: Shaping Norms for the Internet of Things (Susan Ariel Aaronson, Council on Foreign Relations)

In 2012, then CIA Director General David Petraeus gave a disturbing speech on the internet of things (IoT). He noted that individuals, firms, and governments increasingly rely on devices like cars, refrigerators, and smart watches equipped with sensors and connected to the internet. Petraeus contended that IoT-related technologies are changing societal notions of what tasks machines acting “on their own” or in communion with other devices can do. He warned that these devices not only “think, but they are learning to … sense and respond.”

http://blogs.cfr.org/cyber/2016/10/17/for-the-people-and-by-the-people-shaping-norms-for-the-internet-of-things/

Digital Protectionism? Or Label the U.S. Government Uses to Criticize Policy It Doesn’t Like? (Susan Ariel Aaronson, CFR)

Today, information is currency; it facilitates productivity, exchange, technology and trade. Information is also the building block of the digital economy. Although many countries are gaining expertise and market share the United States dominates both the global digital economy and digital trade.

http://blogs.cfr.org/cyber/2016/03/03/digital-protectionism-or-label-the-u-s-government-uses-to-criticize-policy-it-doesnt-like/

The Digital Trade Imbalance and Its Implications for Internet Governance (Susan Ariel Aaronson, CIGI)

Today, information is currency; it facilitates productivity, exchange, technology and trade. Information is also the building block of the digital economy. Although many countries are gaining expertise and market share, one country, the United States, dominates both the global digital economy and digital trade.

This paper will examine how governments use trade agreements and policies to address cross-border Internet issues and to limit digital protectionism. It explores the imbalance between the United States’ enthusiasm for and its major trade partners’ ambivalence toward the creation of a system of trade rules to govern cross-border information flows. It considers whether trade agreements, although they might seem logical avenues for governing cross-border information flows, are in fact the best place to address these issues.

The paper concludes with several recommendations to government officials. Specifically, policy makers should encourage interoperability and the rule of law, define and challenge barriers to digital trade and do a better job of linking trade with other equally important objectives such as advancing digital rights.

https://www.cigionline.org/publications/digital-trade-imbalance-and-its-implications-internet-governance