Beyond the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts: Norms of Responsible Nation-State Behavior in Cyberspace
By Major General (Ret.) John A. Davis, Major Charlie Lewis
| December 09, 2019
While the September 2015 meeting between President Xi of China and President Obama of the United States seemed like a tipping point for norms in cyberspace, the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts (UNGGE) has been developing a useful set of norms for responsible conduct among nations in cyberspace for years. Although consensus was difficult to establish along the way, as it almost always is between nations, the Xi–Obama meeting started the process of establishing a broader agreement on a set of norms that was later endorsed by the Group of Seven and Group of 20. The endorsed norms followed previous agreements and focused on information sharing, cooperation, protection, and avoiding malicious activities within a state’s borders, as well as human rights violations. States were to avoid using their territory for attacks against technologies or critical infrastructure, abstain from disrupting supply chain security, and refrain from using cyber means to harm other states. However, the UNGGE norms effort wavered during 2017 when several key countries backed away from the original agreement for a variety of reasons ranging from inability to enforce it to concerns around its effect on future operations.
Beyond the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts: Norms of Responsible Nation-State Behavior in Cyberspace