FASHIONING EFFECTIVE INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES Sample Clauses

FASHIONING EFFECTIVE INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES. The potential advantages of securing agreements on international norms and standards related to cyber security stem from the view that states could by adopting and implementing such measures create a culture and practices more favorable to cyber security than currently exist. The important insight that the Internet and other cyber systems are (like other transnational activities) subject to state control,40 implies that state support is necessary to achieve effective security norms and appropriate technology standards. Only states can limit their own destabilizing activities, and their cooperation is essential to curb so-called patriotic hackers and cyber crime. Harmonization of laws and practices cannot assure effective cooperation, particularly in enforcing rules or practices that fail accurately to reflect underly- ing differences in policy. But harmonization has not occurred and is essential to secure the benefits of criminal law enforcement through extradition treaties and MLATs, and to achieve interoperability of security systems. Harmonization, effectively applied, implies the existence of national plans and prac- tices that enable the implementation of common international policies. An enhanced capacity to implement norms, practices, and standards is another potential benefit of an international arrangement. Assuming—as we do—that the current, privately and professionally controlled process for reaching common technology positions on cyber activities is valuable and worth preserving, a mechanism whereby national governments could concur in such positions through an international structure could serve to achieve faster and more uniform acceptance, resulting in more secure and robust cyber networks. Finally, an international arrangement could serve to resolve some if not all the current political maneuvering over what agencies, states, or other entities should perform key transnational roles in ICT development and security. The current, de facto distribution of power appears to have ignited a competition for influence likely to disrupt rather than to enhance cyber security. An agreed redistribution of responsibilities that is acceptable to all stakeholders could ensure constructive cooperation in a highly complex undertaking. But negotiating agreements that effectively exploit these potential advantages must satisfactorily address the difficulties and objections that thus far have led the U.S. (and others) to refrain from seeking international agreem...