Unsurprisingly, the fifth UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) ran into difficulties that proved fatal. Previous GGEs operated in a more favorable international climate. The substance of the GGE’s work peaked with its 2013 Report and by the end of the 2015 session, it was clear that the GGE format for negotiating faced difficult and perhaps insurmountable issues. Chief among these issues is the application of international law to cyber operations.
While the Chair held the 2017 GGE open at the conclusion of the fourth round of talks and circulated a revised text in July, agreement was not possible. Disputes over three subjects blocked consensus: the application of international law, agreement on Article 51 of the UN Charter (the inherent right to self-defense), and “countermeasures.” The connecting strand among the three is that Russia and China fear that endorsing self-defense, countermeasures, and international law would be used by the U.S. to justify retaliation for malicious actions in cyberspace. Privately, Chinese officials also say that since they are not yet on a par with the U.S. in cyber capabilities, they are reluctant to commit to how law should be applied.
“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62
Access all of The Cipher Brief’s national security-focused expert insight by becoming a Cipher Brief Subscriber+ Member.
Subscriber+