t is noticeable that existing mechanisms and programs donot include the threats and risks stemming from the use Information Communication Technologies (ICTs),as wellas the new possibilities that cyberspace offers to perpetrate transnational criminal and terrorist activities that may also disruptthe functioning of African nations.

Table 2

South Africa

In addition to undertaking cyber capacity building activities, so far a number of programs and legislative frameworks have been adopted by the Sub Regions notably: ECOWAS cybersecurity guidelines, ECCAS Model Law / CEMAC Directives on Cybersecurity(Data protection, e-transactions, cybercrime); SADC model law on data protection; SADC model law on e-transactions; SADC Model Law on Computer Crime and Cybercrimeand Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA);model Law on electronic transactions andModel Cybercrime Billadopted in 2011(Orji,2015).

the AU Commissiondeveloped Guidelines on Internet Infrastructure Security (ISOC, 2017) and Guidelines on Personnel Data Protection in Africa (ISOC, 2018) where explanations and guidance on domestication of the Malabo Convention provisions are given.

we can consider establishing IGFsin Africaas a successful model,especially in recent years with the increasing participation and involvementof government representatives.

Whilethe USA, Russia and China did not sign the declaration it is reported that four African countriesnamelyGabon, Morocco, Congo and Senegal have signed the declaration (Radunovic,2018)

Africaparticipation in the GCCs is limited to few countries such as Senegal, Kenya, Morroco and Tunisia which are members of the GFCE which generally nominatedelegates from the ministry of ICT to attend the conferences without internal coordination with other Ministries.

Thepace of ratification is very slow withonly four countries ratified (Senegal,Mauritius, Namibia and Guinea), this is due tolack of assistance and support from the African Unionto Member States, the lengthy processes within the countries,lack of awareness of decision makersand parliaments on the importance of cybersecurity and its relation to national security and prosperity.

Among the aforementioned African countries,four countries havealready ratified the Budapest Convention (Mauritius, Senegal, Moroccoand Cape Verde)

They emerge through open dialogue. Because conversations are the basis for any new solutions.

reinforcing a more focused form of multilateralism

renationalisation of system-critical resources, value chains and production processes. In other words, reduced dependencies and risks, and fewer suppliers.

polarisation, sharpened power politics, a trade cold war, eroding world rules, blocked exchanges and, as a consequence, widespread losses of prosperity.

a decoupling of economic areas with regionally closed cycles.

sectoral globalisation

When our democratic environment is threatened and values agreed under international law falter, Switzerland too is threatened.

to strengthening its own and common fundamental values.

There is no neutral attitude towards the brutal violation of fundamental values, which are also our values

First the financial crisis, then climate change, the pandemic and, on 24 February, Russia's attack on Ukraine.

Open world markets and technological progress generated prosperity for hundreds of millions and provided a boost for more democracy, freedom and stability.

He predicted the U.S.-E.U. data deal announced by Mr. Biden would be struck down again by the European Court of Justice because it still does not meet E.U. privacy standards.

Amazon Web Services, the largest cloud computing service, said it lets customers control where in Europe data is stored

Google Analytics, which is used by many websites to collect audience figures, were told this year not to use the program anymore because it could expose the personal data of Europeans to American spying.

If tech companies were required to store it all locally, they could not offer the same products and services around the world, they said.

drafted an executive order to give the government more power to block deals involving Americans’ personal data that put national security at risk,

In Kenya, draft rules require that information from payments systems and health services be primarily stored inside the country, according to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

Shifting attitudes toward digital information are “connected to a wider trend toward economic nationalism,”

The debate over restricting data echoes broader fractures in the global economy.

But users might lose access to some services or features depending on where they live.

And the movement of data has become part of geopolitical negotiations, including a new pact for sharing information across the Atlantic that was agreed to in principle in March.

an early draft of an executive order meant to stop rivals like China from accessing American data.

Driven by security and privacy concerns, as well as economic interests

Now the era of open borders for data is ending.

there are fewer and fewer places where all parties can come together.

“We risk that the world splits up into a multi-power system. We have different philosophies, ideologies; even inside countries we have a polarization which you haven’t experienced 10, 15 years ago.”

For a bunch of people, it’s just five days of making as much money as they can because they’re masters of the universe and they’re seeing other masters of the universe and they’re meeting every 30 minutes and getting deals done,”

the need for multinational collaboration was only growing more urgent.

having people and ideas and goods and services move faster and faster across borders, is what gets you a global middle class over the last 50 years

whether the war is an isolated conflict, or the beginning of a much broader realignment of world powers.

Mr. Schwab barred not only Russian government officials but also all Russian nationals from attending.

“One of W.E.F.’s big ideas has been that shared economic prosperity would bring the world more together,”

have fundamentally challenged the viability of that aspirational worldview.

has extolled the virtues of an interconnected world, one where the free flow of goods, services, people and ideas would lead to shared prosperity and peace.

thefollowingplurilateralinitiativesintheWTO

itseemsfairtoquestion

AsearlyasFebruaryandMarchexperts,backedbyofficialstatisticsofalldeathspercountry,stressedthefacts,thatareasonableresponseshouldberecommended.

Expect an ecosystem of alliances.”

In April the EU agreed such a deal with India and has embarked on a similar process with Japan. Tech is also being discussed in the Quad, the security dialogue between America, Australia, India and Japan.

into a “tech alliance” of democracies

As for the EU, the European Court of Justice may yet strike down the new version of “Privacy Shield”, too. Similar lawsuits are possible in America as well

But Open RAN and virtualisation also weaken two big European firms, Ericsson and Nokia, which are in the same business as Huawei. And they create opportunities for America’s big cloud providers, in particular Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, to get involved in telecoms.

America’s negotiators want the TTC to speed up the deployment of two new ways of building mobile networks called Open RAN (short for Open Radio Access Network) and “virtualisation”.

Optimists note that ordinary Americans, if not their elected representatives, seem open to the idea of such rules: they trust tech companies even less than Europeans do (see chart).

But in most areas, the council’s woolly pledges hint at the difficulty of the task ahead. In AI, the EU and America aim to “develop a shared hub/repository of metrics and methodologies for measuring AI trustworthiness and AI risks”. In climate and clean tech, both “work towards a common methodology for joint EU-US recommendations on selected carbon-intensive products”. In tech investment, the pair are thinking about holding a “tabletop exercise” to learn how the other side reacts when a Russian or Chinese firm comes knocking to acquire a local company. In other words, officials still are trying to find a common language.

an early-warning system to avoid the sort of bottlenecks that have led to the current shortage of microchips

more information and harmonise regulations

an “open, free, global, interoperable, reliable, and secure” internet

the “Declaration for the Future of the Internet”,

If America and the EU had not even been able to agree on data flows, says another official, other attempts at transatlantic co-operation in tech policy would have been futile.

the agreement did not sufficiently limit American law-enforcement agencies’ access to the personal data of European citizens.

It is supposed to be the main venue in which America and the EU co-ordinate policy for the digital realm

the pair account for 55% of the global market for information technology,

The TTC is the West’s response to efforts by China and others (notably Russia after its invasion of Ukraine) to build an autocratic digital world and bring the physical supply-chains that underpin it under their control.

Back then companies had neither healthy balance-sheets nor promising business models. Nowadays many of them have both. The stomach-churning market gyrations are unpleasant to a generation of tech founders, workers and investors who have lived a long bull run. But they are unlikely to stop digital technology eating the world.

Cyber-security firms, such as CrowdStrike or Palo Alto Networks, could see their fortunes return thanks to fears of Russian and Chinese cyber-attacks.

focus on the quality names in tech.

The industry has suffered from an abrupt reversal of fortunes, explains Mark Mahaney of Evercore ISI, an investment bank. In recent years more than one factor gave tech a boost: the coronavirus pandemic pushed life and work online; government stimulus programmes further increased demand; and super-loose monetary policy made tech’s long-term growth more attractive to investors. Now people are turning away from screens and leaving home again; the war in Ukraine is creating paralysing uncertainty; and economies around the world are suffering from inflation and soon, perhaps, recession.

Although they were meant to reach the Moon no matter what, cryptocurrencies are also coming a cropper. Even some hardened “hodlers” have been getting cold feet. On May 12th bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, was trading below $26,000, less than half its peak in early November. Other digital monies have shed even more value. The next four biggest coins have lost more than 70% since their peak. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), even more speculative titles to digital assets such as art that can be traded, have been hammered, too. Sales of NFTs in ether, another big cryptocurrency, have dropped by more than half in recent weeks on OpenSea, a big NFT marketplace.

all the assets that climbed to dizzying heights over the past few years are now coming down to earth. It is harder to say how loudly they will burst—and which might still reflate.

it isn’t too early to say that the war in Ukraine will accelerate the geopolitical and economic shift from the West to the East.

Joe Biden had hoped to put Russia policy on a “stable and predictable” footing in order to focus on America’s Indo-Pacific strategy. The war in Ukraine undoubtedly will distract America’s attention and syphon away resources. It will further hollow out Mr Biden’s Indo-Pacific strategy, which already has too many aims and too few tools and not enough supporters

By contrast China is the largest beneficiary of the rules and regulations of global commerce and finance made by the West after the second world war. China has a huge stake in safeguarding the existing international order.

Mr Putin’s Russia is nostalgic for the heyday of the Soviet empire.

But the war in Ukraine has inadvertently proved that Beijing and Moscow’s rapprochement is not an alliance.

Europe’s security, now as in the past, can only be achieved with Russia’s co-operation.

Mr Putin’s all-out war against Ukraine has failed. Precisely because of that, he will fight until he can declare some sort of “victory”. Presumably this will involve Ukraine’s acceptance that Crimea is part of Russia, its promise not to join NATO and the independence of the two “republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk. The challenge is whether Russian troops are able to control Donbas after occupying it.

But it will lose Russia’s partnership. And it is only a matter of time before America takes on China again.

It expresses understanding of Russia’s “legitimate concerns” over NATO’s expansion, while underlining that “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries must be respected”.

IF THE ENEMY of my enemy is my friend, is the enemy of my friend also my enemy?

Of Russia’s top ten scientific collaborators, according to publication statistics from Nature Index, a database that tracks scientific output, only China has failed to impose post-invasion academic sanctions on Russia. There is thus a looming funding crisis for dozens of Russian research and data stations that were maintained by Western support.

Russian researchers have, for example, been “disinvited” from academic conferences, such as the Arctic science summit

Two-thirds of Russia is covered by permafrost, and this frozen ground locks up huge amounts of organic material. As it melts and that organic material decays, greenhouse gases in the form of methane and carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere. Without good data on these emissions, understanding about their contribution to climate change will decline.

Sanctions, says Dag Rune, rector of the Arctic University, in Tromso, “will have devastating consequences for Arctic research, and the consequences for climate change are obvious. Projects in the Arctic”,

Information from stations in Siberia and buoys in the Arctic Ocean provide irreplaceable data on climate change.

Hundreds of long-standing partnerships like Dr Aspholm’s have been put on indefinite hold and projects involving Russian researchers have either suspended their participation or been put on ice entirely.

Sanctions permit the sale of oil and gas to most of the world to continue uninterrupted. And a spike in energy prices has boosted revenues further.

we estimate that Russian imports have fallen by about 44% since the invasion of Ukraine, while its exports have risen by roughly 8%.

Some simpler rules are much more likely to help. Define the parameters of a brainstorming session upfront. Try to make a specific thing work better rather than to shoot for the Moon. Involve people you don’t know, as well as those you do. Start by getting people to write their ideas down in silence, so extroverts and bosses have less chance to dominate. And be clear about the next steps after the session is over; the attraction of holding a “design sprint”, a week-long, clear-the-diary way for a team to develop and test product prototypes, is that the thread connecting ideas to outcomes is taut. All of which would make brainstorming a little more thought-provoking and a tad less heart-sinking.

“Step-laddering

“Figure-storming”

Some personalities are immediately comfortable saying what they think; others need to be coaxed to share their opinions.

different personalities and different styles of thinking

f decision-makers are not in the room, then the suspicion will grow that time is being wasted

managers and non-managers.

The most feasible suggestions were generated at the start of brainstorming sessions, presumably because they were also more obvious, and the most original ones came later.

to produce suggestions that can actually be translated into reality

One tension is between creativity and feasibility

Normal routines afford employees precious little time to think.

Tesla, his electric-car company and source of most of his wealth, has lost 29% of its market value—$305bn—since the Twitter plan was hatched

to check Twitter’s claim that no more than 5% of its users are bots,

to avoid dangers, seize opportunities and maximise the space for manoeuvre.

Some see it as a Vienna for the 21st century—the natural place for antagonists in Asia’s growing Great Game to meet.

“We have always invested a lot of time and resources trying to understand the environment we live in,” says one Singaporean policymaker. The country’s diplomatic corps, for its size, is one of the savviest in the world, and by far the most effective among the ten-member Association of South-East Asian Nations. A plethora of academic institutes, all with ties to the state, specialise in covering the region.

The tiny state of 5.7m was born at a time of turmoil in South-East Asia. Its position on the narrow Malacca Strait, through which much of the world’s shipping and energy passes, gives it a precarious sense of being a nut that could be smashed in a fight between great powers. Regional rivalry between China and America has grown sharply.

For that, Singapore has better prospects. Some China-based journalists wound up in the city-state by chance—the Financial Times’s Beijing bureau chief happened to be in Singapore with his family as China locked down and has stayed. Others are drifting in as China remains all but closed, including from Hong Kong. Crucially, it is not only journalists who are coming to Singapore. The Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre for Global Policy in Beijing is a joint venture between an American think-tank and one of China’s most prestigious universities. It aims to encourage dialogue and collaboration between scholars in China and the West. Its American head, Paul Haenle, a former White House official, now resides in Singapore. Some Western countries have spread staff who were formerly based in Beijing to other embassies around the region, including missions in Singapore. Such arrivals jokingly refer to their new home in the city-state as “Beijing South”. Few say they will never return to China if or when it reopens—but nor do they openly commit to doing so. Meanwhile, a trickle of expat business executives moving to Singapore from Hong Kong is turning into a steady stream. The country’s attractions are undeniable. Its people are refreshingly direct. English is universally spoken, which is not the case in Hong Kong. Clean, green, prosperous and safe, it is, as one of its officials jokes, “Asia-lite”—easy for many Westerners to adjust to, but with plenty of exotic brushstrokes.

Tether is not only a financial bridge between crypto and conventional money—ie, dollars in bank accounts—but also between all kinds of crypto pairs that are traded on exchanges.

These act as a bridge between conventional banks, where people use dollars, and the “on-blockchain” world, where people use crypto.

The market capitalisation of crypto has slumped to just $1.3trn, from nearly $3trn in November.

After enduring colonialism, decades of unfair economic practices and covid-19 vaccine apartheid, we cannot accept regressive climate policy as another injustice.

The EU’s recent decision to label natural gas and nuclear power as green investments recognises a critical truth: different countries will follow different paths in the energy transition.

This is partly because of a naive belief in leapfrogging, the assumption that, like skipping landlines for mobile phones, Africa can ‘leap’ to new energy technologies.

President Muhammadu Buhari has also pledged that Nigeria will reach net-zero emissions by 2060.

If our continent’s unmet energy needs are already huge, future demand will be even greater as populations expand, urbanisation accelerates and more people move into the middle class.

we will need reliable low-cost power for facilities such as data centres and, eventually, for millions of electric vehicles.

Total electricity use for more than a billion people, covering all 48 sub-Saharan African countries except South Africa, is less than that used by Spain (home to just 47m)

We need to adapt to digital diplomacy and host targeted seminars to sell South Africa.

Diplomats need to be more innovative and find new ways of practicing their craft.

Twinning provinces and cities is one way to forge economic relations with countries abroad.

We will defend our non-aligned position and maintain an independent foreign policy.

It has disrupted global supply chains, driven up the price of essential commodities and plunged the world into a new era of economic instability and uncertainty.

Powerful countries must no longer be allowed to disregard international law.

The current formation of the UN Security Council is outdated and unrepresentative.

Publicising our successes in advancing democracy, good governance and human rights must form an essential part of our public diplomacy efforts.

The African Peer Review Mechanism is a critical tool to advance good governance and democracy under Agenda 2063, but beyond African countries themselves, there is still not enough awareness about what the APRM has achieved.

Africa has found a new voice that is bold and unapologetic.

South Africa’s voice on the international stage has been amplified.

This stance has put us firmly on the side of social justice and principled solidarity, and reaffirmed our commitment to progressive internationalism.

It was South Africa, alongside India, that initially sponsored the proposal to the WTO for a temporary TRIPS waiver to enable countries to produce their own vaccines.

has also changed the diplomatic landscape.

shaping a refreshed progressive global architecture through BRICS

the trend from the pandemic era of digital conferencing

to engage with prospective investors and take the initiative to personally

Economic diplomacy

the African Agenda

the complete overhaul of the UN system

We have not seen concomitant actions with regards to other conflicts, including those where the laws of war and the UN Charter have also been breached.

The need for a rules-based multilateral system is more urgent now than ever in our history.

to maintain robust trade relations with a plethora of countries across the political divide of the Cold War. This approach is as valid today as it was then.

Non-aligned countries like South Africa

“Positioning South Africa’s Diplomacy to Advance our Domestic Priorities.”

The world has changed significantly since the advent of Covid-19, and so should our diplomatic craft.

disseminating information on different social media platforms and at appropriate events.

strong public diplomacy machinery as primary currency to strategically position South Africa’s foreign policy in host countries.

youth development programmes, and coproduction in the film industry and arts and crafts, among other things.

to identify relevant platforms and structures, working with local communities – business, youth and NGOs – in the countries of accreditation.

cultivate tolerance, and promote cultural understanding and appreciation.

to strengthen and encourage people-to-people relations through engagement

to promote and position South Africa as a preferred destination for tourism, trade and investment

With rigidity, there is little room for real innovation, and efforts must be made to avoid it in our recovery strategy.

developed mechanisms that are able to quantify the value that our missions bring into the country’s trade and investment landscape.

reviving the economy in line with the economic reconstruction and recovery plan.

“We need to adapt to digital diplomacy and host targeted seminars to sell South Africa.”

research and analysis of global developments and how these may affect the home country, advice on the home governments’ response to prevailing global situations, engagement with foreign diplomats and the host country, public diplomacy events, and trade and investment seminars and road shows.

Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view

It is through their work that South Africa can be positioned as a preferred destination for trade, investment and tourism, among many other key strategic sectors geared towards building our economy.

to be open, in principle, to those jurisdictions which accept the objectives and principles

interoperability with other data protection and privacy frameworks.

globally to facilitate data protection and free flow of data;

review data protection and privacy standards

a forum for information exchange and cooperation

the Global CBPR and PRP Systems;

an international certification system based on the APEC Cross Border Privacy Rules (CBPR)

the importance of strong and effective data protection and privacy in strengthening consumer and business trust in digital transactions;

that regulatory barriers threaten to undermine opportunities created by the digital economy

not just for big, multinational technology companies, but for companies across all sectors of the economy, and for micro, small- and medium-sized businesses, workers, and consumers as well;

the following points

Of the European SMEs that the EU Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) surveyed in 2021, 90% stated that cybersecurity issues would have serious negative impacts on their business within a week of the issues happening, with 57% of them likely to become bankrupt or go out of business.

on shared trade concerns regarding third-countries measures

successful digital and green transitions,

to promote internationally recognized labor rights and to help workers

A new Cooperation Framework on issues related to information integrity in crises, particularly on digital platforms

An early warning system to better predict and address potential semiconductor supply chain disruptions as well as a Transatlantic approach to semiconductor investment aimed at ensuring security of supply and avoiding subsidy races;

a U.S.-EU Strategic Standardization Information (SSI) mechanism

privacy-enhancing technologies

trustworthy Artificial Intelligence and risk management

on exports of critical U.S. and EU technology

They are collaborating closely on emerging technology standards, climate and clean tech objectives data governance and technology platforms, information and communications technology services’ (ICTS) security and competitiveness, and the misuse of technology threatening security and human rights. The TTC working groups are also coordinating on export controls, investment screening and security risks, and a range of global trade challenges, including countering the harmful impact of non-market, trade-distortive policies and practices on technological development and competitiveness in sectors of shared priority

by expanding access to digital tools for small- and medium-sized enterprises and securing critical supply chains such as semiconductors

disagreements on tariffs

AU Agenda 2063

he African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA) and African Single Market (ASM) 3)

Less than 10 countries have established the office of the national data commissioner, a critical office under the Malabo Convention.

“Cyber direct” project: contribute to the development of a secure international cybersphere, to support the principles of single open stable free secure cyberspace which adheres to the values of democracy and human rights. The initiatives promote the UN framework for responsible states' behaviour to ensure the stability of cyberspace.

Africa is diverse and each state has its context,

Taking the example of the Malabo convention, the failure or refusal to ratify this convention may have political dimensions rooted in our diversity (political, cultural, historical) in addition to the lack of capacity despite many initiatives, confidence building measures and capacity building, led by the AUC.

The continent should be interested in issues related to Cyber Diplomacy because cyberspace like any global environment is only as strong as its weakest link, and Africa must NOT be the weak link.

and that does that but Kat Dr Katarina Höne,

oday we will discuss the impact of AI on diplomacy and mediation.

Center on Conflict, Development, and Peacebuilding, Graduate Institute in Geneva