Frankly, U.S. policy toward cyberspace and the internet has failed to keep up. The United States desperately needs a new foreign policy that confronts head on the consequences of a fragmented and dangerous internet.

Some African countries are already implementing ECD by mobilizing national public institutions and their diplomatic network to create opportunities

setting technical standards and creating norms for emerging technologies.

There's no manuals, there's no best practices,” Rauchbauer says. “You have to invent everything on the go and have to think it out yourself.” In the face of rapidly expanding tech empires, governments must use every tool at their disposal to contend with them.

Microsoft, for example, opened offices to the United Nations and the European Union in 2020, creating space for diplomatic, not just commercial, engagements

“This idea that you're a diplomat that is not geographically located and focused ... is a challenge for foreign ministries. And the antibodies in foreign ministries against things that don't look like they're from these categories are strong.”

"The freight train is coming ... so it’s not the IT office that needs to deal with technology; it’s mainstream foreign and security policy. Too few countries get that."

They may recognize that Big Tech has country-like powers, but they can’t seem to figure out how to deal with their very un-country-like structures.