By GP Acharya (KATHMANDU, 29 October 2021) – Technology has been a cutting edge of economy while the ‘cutting-edge technology’ has been (re)defining international relations and diplomatic affairs. Technology, especially information technology (IT), has been taking the center stage in ‘state of affairs’ since the 1980’s. Technology and foreign policy are mutually related- technology has been influencing foreign policy while foreign policy is also inducing the development and deployment of technology.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Nano-Technology have been a very powerful tool for countries to define state’s capability. The powerful countries, that are equipped with the clout of AI, have been so confident today that they are more likely to defend their ‘national security posture’ and influence world politics, economy and diplomacy. The states started massively using AI in military and security, particularly in the post 9/11 incident. Since then, AI and foreign policy making are more closely interlinked.
Techno-Digital Sovereignty
Technology and digital capabilities have been largely exploited by some powerful countries to contain or dominate their adversaries. They are perpetrating crucial tech threats against prey nations such as: cyber threats- cyber-attacks and cyber surveillance (threats to cyber sovereignty); the misuse of AI- data harvesting (unethical assembling or leaking of data) and surveillance (against other countries citizens); disinformation- online terror content (undermining democracy through social media campaign); and transnational threats- theft of intellectual property and attack on various critical infrastructures such as telecom, power-grids, banks, airports, and medical research among others. The Pegasus hacking and massive data leak by the use of spyware, in the past months, is an example of ‘Cyber-Tech Diplomacy’ turning into ‘Spy-Tech Diplomacy’. The cyber-tech threat is posing grave concern to national security, digital sovereignty, humanity and people’s personal sovereign dignity. The wicked use of technology and cyber space have been posturing crucial threats to democracy and economy of the powerful nations as well. For an instance, the US, a tech superpower, blamed Russia over the hacking of presidential election in 2016. Meanwhile in 2018, some western media claimed that Cambridge Analytica, the UK based political firm, massively exploited millions of Facebook data, especially from American voters, to garner support in the election process. Likewise, Saudi Arabia blamed Iran for perpetrating devastating cyber-attack on the Saudi Aramco oil company in 2017. The misuse of technology- both by state and non-state actors- have added more threats to democracy as well as national security.
The Tech and social media giants hosted some nationalist and radical leaders including Indian Prime Minister Modi in the Silicon Valley in 2017, meanwhile many of their citizens were protesting against their muscular nationalism back at home. The goal of these leaders, perhaps, was to spread their nationalistic agenda through social media. It cannot be denied that tech and social media are undermining the democratic norms by contributing to ethnic and religious nationalism induced by violent religious and ethnic nationalism, writes Siva Vaidhyanathan in “Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects us and Undermines Democracy”.
The higher the countries develop intelligent machines, the more they are witnessing bigger threat to humanity, peace and democracy. Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO, once claimed that social media are making the world “more open and connected” and “bringing the world closer together”. Conversely, social media have been injecting socio-emotional or socio-psychological detachment among the people. Many people are living online, working online, celebrating online and dating online; but unfortunately some are dying online and many others are dying out of digital technology, while some others are using the platform of Facebook Live video streaming to announce their suicide. As like the ‘digitized friendship’, the death is also likely to be digitized now.
Social media has been a new medium through which we “come alive” if we’re seen online throughout day and night, or even people assume that we’re “socially dead” if we’re offline for long, or continue to exist (on social media) even after “biological death”, contend R.A. Baron and N.R. Branscombe in “Social Psychology”. Most of the social media users are not aware of the future consequences of ‘peer photography’ and corresponding tagging of images in the Facebook, whereby ‘peer surveillance’ links to ‘corporate surveillance’ which ultimately connects to ‘state surveillance’ (“As the images are tagged with metadata revealing time and location”) once the images are uploaded to the social media. People upload nearly 1.8 billion digital images to social media every single day- that add up to 657 billion photos each year (Internet Trends Report- 2014). Some of these images are under rigorous surveillance by various investigative agencies while many others are exploited or abused by cyber criminals. ‘Surveillance fosters harassment and humiliation’ to the tagged peers leading to grave psychological threats, while Facebook itself is a ‘surveillance machine’ that collects, uses and shares massive data without the consent of users, claims Vaidhyanathan. Social media are violating people’s privacy and hurting people’s feelings. Most of the contents on social media are directly affecting the emotional brain of humans, which is gradually affecting their thinking brain, which is subsequently disorienting every aspect of lives- personal, professional and social. An internal research conducted by Wall Street Journal (September 14, 2021) reveled that social media, particularly Instagram and Facebook, are massively contributing to the mental health crisis in teens. The fabricated joy and happiness expressed on social media are making people unhappy, angered, irritated, frustrated and zombie, which is dominating the minds and lives of large section of people globally. The physical and psychic surveillance of the Tech systems have dictated every personal space of nations and their nationals.
Nevertheless, technology alone cannot bring drastic change in human life and wellbeing, a ‘conscious and responsible behavior’ is essential in every human being including tech users, technocrats, and policy makers. Technology certainly has brought dramatic transformation in human life, economy and state affairs. Yet, the tech polices and strategies need to reflect democratic values that advances liberty, and respect human rights and people’s personal sovereign dignity. The potential psychological threats, social impacts and emotional wellness of every individual need to be cared and considered as part of AI ethics, human rights, and tech and social media regulation. Most important, an official and diplomatic channel (multilateral channel) need to be formed such that countries develop responsible and ethical technology, while the honest and ethical use of digital technology and social media will certainly advance people’s life.
Techno-Economic-Diplomatic Clout
Tech giants and multinational companies are emerging so powerful- both economically and diplomatically- that they are likely to play a role similar to that of nation-states in international affairs. For an instance, the tech giant Apple had market capital worth USD $2.08 trillion, which is more than the GDP of Australia ($1.397 trillion), Canada ($1.736 trillion), Brazil ($1.84 trillion), or Italy ($2.003 trillion) in 2019. Apple alone had hand-cash more than the GDP of two-third of the countries in the world in 2016. Apple’s annual turnover was USD $274.3 billion, which is more than the GDP of Finland ($269.3 billion) in 2019. The e-commerce giant Alibababa, which has 1.18 billion active consumers worldwide, had USD $74.1 billion sells in a day (November 11), which is more than Oman’s GDP ($63.19 billion) in 2020. Another e-commerce giant Amazon has 310 million active users, which is more than the population of Indonesia (273.5 million). Facebook, which has more than 3 billion users (3.51 billion product users: at least one- Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, or Messenger) and 60 thousands fulltime employees (as of August 2021, Statista), has net worth USD $138.227 billion and market capital of USD $1.21 trillion. Now, imagine what would be the state of economic and diplomatic clout of nations having lesser credence than that of those tech-giants in international sphere?
Some countries are deputing Tech Ambassadors with an aim that they could strongly advocate and mediate between governments and tech companies, and also deal with foreign and security policy. Denmark appointed world’s first Tech Ambassador in 2017, while France appointed Tech Ambassador to the Silicon Valley in the early 2018. Since then dozens of countries have appointed Tech Ambassadors in different destinations. International digital strategy has been a new focus in foreign policy of many countries now. These countries have envisioned that the Tech Ambassadors can play multiple roles- a government representative with tech-industry, and an advisor to the government regarding latest technological developments that can be introduced in devising foreign and security policies at home.
Promoting National-Tech Interest
Many countries have been deputing computer scientists, engineers and tech experts in their diplomatic missions with an aim that they could promote technical cooperation between the respective countries. Considering the sensitive geo-location and geo-tech-environment, Nepal needs to appoint Tech and Cyber diplomats having sound diplomatic cum technical knowledge such that they can proceed smart diplomatic dealings with more confidence and affluence, which help influence the host countries to promote national-tech interest.
More importantly, Nepal needs to initiate a tech co-operation framework in the region and beyond, and appoint tech envoys to specific countries. Since there is a close link between technological development and diplomatic affairs, Nepal needs to think ahead of sensible tech diplomacy. Tech diplomacy can be an effective tool for a country like Nepal that would help not only in coaxing ‘techno-economic cooperation’, but also to attain economic and security success in the long run. In addition, Nepal has to work aggressively to introduce ‘Data Protection Regulations’ such that every individual’s private data could be protected, which not only enhance citizen’s personal sovereign dignity, but also help protect national security. After all, a national tech foreign policy needs to be defined such that it could navigate democratic and rational technological future.
(This article first appeared in Republica.)