Cybersecurity, National Security and Trade in the Digital Era

The digital transformation, and especially the implementation of the Internet of Things with the advent of 5G telecommunications networks, is creating national security concerns that threaten to disrupt international commerce across geopolitical divides, including a decoupling of US- and China-centred cyberspheres. This note considers the nature of the cybersecurity concerns that have been raised in the decoupling debate and the changing context for national security. It concludes that we do not yet have a good idea of what we need to do, and we do not who will be doing it. This means that it is premature to attempt to craft a national security regime for the emerging data-driven economy. Data is not treaty ready, and the world, unfortunately, is not yet ready to deal with the regulation of the data-driven economy.