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The Worldwide Struggle to Claim Cyber Sovereignty

The Worldwide Struggle to Claim Cyber Sovereignty

The year was 1648. Europe had just negotiated the Peace of Westphalia, ending the 30 years of war that had ensnared the continent. The series of peace treaties that came out of the negotiations established the concept of sovereignty, a political order of co-existing states, establishing a norm against interference in the domestic affairs of others. As European influence spread, so did the concept of sovereignty, soon becoming a central tenet of international law and the prevailing world order – the modern nation-state was established.

But much like economic globalization and interdependence has slowly eroded the traditional concept of sovereignty, so has the expansion of the global internet. The physical infrastructure of cyberspace – the undersea fiber optic cables – is likely to continue connecting nations for trade and economic inclusion in global markets. But governments across the political spectrum – from Russia and China to Western liberal democracies – are now seeking to impose their sovereign authority on the content and data that transverse their borders across those very cables.

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