The Global Commons is a Great Good

By Chris Inglis

Chris Inglis served as the first National Cyber Director where he was responsible for coordinating federal agency work on cyber and overseeing the US' digital defense strategy. Inglis retired from the Department of Defense in January 2014 after more than 41 years of federal service, including 28 years at NSA and seven and a half years as its senior civilian and Deputy Director. Mr. Inglis’ military career includes over 30 years of service in the U.S. Air Force from which he retired as a Brigadier General in 2006.

How governments view powerful tools like the internet often determines how they treat them. In the West, governments have sought to let citizens freely and openly engage with cyberspace – for trade, culture, and civic discourse. Others, such as Russia and China, see the internet as a powerful tool to consolidate their power domestically and a threat to their sovereignty internationally. But doing so disregards the economic, social, and cultural globalization that the internet has helped manifest. The Cipher Brief’s Levi Maxey spoke with Chris Inglis, the former Deputy Director of the National Security Agency, about why governments might understand digital sovereignty differently and the negative impacts a fragmenting of the global digital commons could have.

The Cipher Brief: How do various forms of government view their digital sovereignty differently?

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