Developing and managing secure digital solutions requires extensive knowledge across issues like data privacy and security, interoperability standards, franchise management, biometric tokenization, device security, and more.

ensuring the digitAl economy is An inclusive economy

Climate change’s economic implications raise essential questions about how African countries might strengthen their economies in an age dominated by technology. By expanding access to digital technologies, African nations will empower the poor with access to information, job opportunities, and services that will improve their lives.15With a growing youth population and an ever-expanding workforce, investments in technology and technological infrastructure lay the foundations for economic growth. Such investments and developments could improve access to inclusive financing, modernize the agricultural sector, and improve healthcare systems. Technology poses new opportunities and possibilities for women’s inclusion and advancement. For example, in the agricultural sector, African women are utilizing technology and technological innovations to improve agricultural processes and, in turn, improve livelihoods.16 Women and girls cannot and should not be left behind. (See the viewpoint on page 56 for boosting opportunities for women and girls in STEM.)

We cannot forget that 578 million people in Africa still lack energy access—cutting them off from educational opportunities and the entire digital economy

Africa

Thus, hybrid format of physical interactions and online meetings seem to be the best approach for diplomatic engagements.

First, it multiplies and amplifies the number of voices and interests involved in international policymaking. Second, it accelerates and frees the dissemination of information—accurate or not—about any issue or event. Third, it enables traditional diplomatic services to be delivered faster and more cost effectively.

establishing a data privacy act and a national cybersecurity plan

the Smart Africa Alliance

science parks and technology hubs to encourage innovation.

Prioritizing the growth of labor-intensive industries is particularly important for ensuring employment among Africa’s growing youth population.

Governments should protect intellectual property (IP) rights to stimulate the generation of new innovations and technologies.

Currently, South America and Africa combined are responsible for less than 5 percent of the total global R&D spent, despite having more than 20 percent of the world’s population. Indeed, Africa itself falls short of the 1.7 percent R&D global average, with many African countries only investing 0.42 percent of their total GDP.

The literacy of Africa’s workforce should be increased in a range of soft and hard skills to be flexible and dynamic: Public and private institutions should partner with universities to develop effective continuing and executive education programs. Digital literacy skills can be enhanced by the development of future-ready curricula that creates a culture that encourages lifelong learning. African states should also create or accelerate the development of engineering and business schools, as well as technical vocational colleges to support industrial growth and create models of training based on the changing needs of the private sector.

Gaps in internet access prevent citizens from accessing the full scope of internet services; slow economic growth; limit Africa’s potential to trade and interact with the world; and lead to inaccurate, biased data collection

the unique global policy momentum that has led to unlocking barriers to technology and innovation during the pandemic provides further evidence that governments can play a key policy role not only in enabling technological innovation

Digitalisation: Digitalisation involves the integration of digital tech-nologies in society, government and business. Digitalisation comprises a wide range of digital applications, such as new communication technologies, robotics, cloud computing, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, the internet of things and 3D printing. It also permeates other areas of our day-to-day lives, in some cases fundamentally altering them

Switzerland has a great deal of credibility in sub-Saharan Africa. It was never a colonial power, and its neutrality and humanitarian tradition are valued and anchored in the region’s consciousness. Switzerland intends to seize more opportunities and work with the region as a partner to help it tackle the challenges it faces. It is therefore compiling a strategy for cooperation with Africa.

Digitalisation

As a trade-oriented, medium-sized economy, Switzerland is reliant on the open markets, legal certainty and predictability of a rules-based global economic system.

Core mission

Tech4Good:

Systematically including the topics digitalisation/new technologies in bilateral and multilateral political dia-logue.

Stepping up exchanges between African tech hubs and International Geneva, especially on the involvement of African actors (governments, private sector, the scien-tific community, civil society) in the field of international digital governance

Switzerland fosters the potential of a new generationof university graduates who have been educated abroad

to African tech hubs.

the lion economies

With a view to strengthening the position of International Geneva as a global centre for digital governance and other issues of the future, the Federal Council seeks to encourage the participation of business, the scientific community and other non-governmental actors in relevant international forums. African stakeholders in particular should increasingly be able to participate in discussions on digital governance. There is potential in intensified exchanges between emerging African tech-hubs and Inter-national Geneva. Capacity-building is an important means of providing support. Collaboration with multilateral organ-isations such as the AU and the IOF presents opportunities for comprehensive approaches. The potential of the Geneva Internet Platform (GIP)31 set up by Switzerland in 2014, should also be harnessed.

o create innovative and inclusive financial services for African societies

to minimise cyber risks, particularly with regard to data management, cybercrime, cyberattacks and cyber espionage, the financing of terrorism, surveillance as well as disinformation.

nclusive access

potentially exacerbating inequality and dependency, for example in relation to jobs or the use of data. This is why digital self-determination should be paramount in the application of technology.

n relation to jobs or the use of data.

Firstly, it involves the use of digital tools in international cooperation projects and programmes to achieve devel-opment goals more effectively and quickly. Digital applications drive development-related and humanitarian innovations worldwide. Switzerland’s commitment to harnessing the full potential of new technologies in combating poverty is summarised under the term Tech4Good.

nternational cooperation continues to play a key role, in line with the International Cooperation Strategy 2021–2024. However, sub-Saharan Africa is also becoming increasingly important for other policy areas, such as foreign economic and finance policy, digital foreign policy, science diplomacy and multilateralism. The Federal Council wishes to support this development and also strengthen ties with International Geneva.

a migration perspective. Many new opportunities are also emerging for Africa. Secondly, Switzerland has well-established ties with sub-Saharan Africa in view of its geographical proximity, cultural richness and economic potential.

a whole-of-government approach

Switzerland plays an active role in training and upskilling the labour force through programmes which are responsive to the needs of the labour market and leverage the opportunities offered by digital transformation

Digital-isation offers opportunities to further increase the effective-ness and efficiency of administrations, reduce red tape and prevent corruption.

the World Bank’s new GovTech platform aimed at improving the management of public finances.

mobile phone payments and other innovations in the financial sector, the use of blockchain for financial services or satellite data and drones for insurance against crop damage, solar power gener-ation in humanitarian contexts, improved medical diagnoses using artificial intelligence, enhanced access to information for more transparency in democratic processes

) creating decent local jobs, b) mitigating and adapting to climate change, c) reducing the causes of forced displace-ment and irregular migration, and d) promoting the rule of law and good governance.

the needs of the population in developing countries, Switzerland’s long-term interests, and the value added by its international cooperation compared with other countries.

humanitarian aid, development cooperation and the promotion of peace and human security.

Semiconductor chips are the lifeblood of the modern information age. They enable electronic products to compute and control actions that simplify our lives. The manufacturing cycle of a semiconductor chip from sand to a finished product, sees it change hands approximately 70 times across international borders. It is not difficult to imagine that the chip in the device closest to you was made by a Japanese engineer working on Dutch machinery in an American foundry in Taiwan to produce wafers which were shipped to Malaysia for packaging before being sent to India as a finished product. There cannot be a better example of peacetime global cooperation than the resolve involved in making the meticulous chip. These semiconductor chips are the drivers for ICT development and one of the key reasons for the current flattening of the world.

enabling effects of technology for combatting climate change and protecting the environment whilst reducing as much as possible the environmental footprint of the Internet and digital technologies

diverse cultural and multilingual content,

digital literacy

to close digital divides

data free flows

with principles of Net Neutrality subject

algorithmic tools or techniques

igital ecosystem,

afe and equitable use of the Internet for everyone

online safety

ot legally binding

while respecting each other’s regulatory autonomy within our own jurisdictions and in accor-dance with our respective domestic laws and international legal obligations.

partner

is governed by multistakeholder processes.

the Internet reinforces democratic principles and human rights and fun-damental freedoms

n open, free, global, interoperable, re-liable, and secure

to protect and fortify the multistakeholder system of Internet governance

to defending human rights and fostering equitable economic prosperity.

once decentralized Internet economy has become highly concentrated

countries have erected firewalls

malicious behavior is on the rise

Access to the open Internet is limited

an environment that reinforces our democratic systems and promotes active par-ticipation of every citizen in democratic processes

a new Declaration for the Future of the Internet

informal consultative meetings

on a voluntary basis

a dedicated stakeholder session,

on a non-objection basis,

This allows the bot to match the plane it is tracking in real time to the anonymized FAA flight plans and determine each plane’s intended destination. This information is all entirely public, and can be used to track most private aircraft.

when it is taking off or landing.

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in Article 51, that “[n]othing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense... ” 

“Russia … acquired its imperial territories almost exclusively by adjacence. Unlike Britain and France, which jumped thousands of miles beyond their own borders to other continents, Russia moved to swallow whatever land or peoples stood next to its borders … but in the English and French cases, the sheer distance of attractive territories summoned the projection of far-flung interest ...”

the fact that the US is so obviously hypocritical in this regard does not necessarily mean Washington is automatically wrong. In the end, we must analyze Russia’s conduct on its own merits.  

But people can’t be expected to embrace the changes if they’re not seeing the benefits—if they’re just seeing good jobs being destroyed.

“An economy of tech millionaires or billionaires and gig workers, with middle-income jobs undercut by automation, will not be politically sustainable.”

“I don’t think it’s an accident that we have so much emphasis on automation when the future of technology in this country is in the hands of a few companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and so on that have algorithmic automation as their business model,”

One reason is that companies are often choosing to deploy what he and his collaborator Pascual Restrepo call “so-so technologies,” which replace workers but do little to improve productivity or create new business opportunities.

far more value is created by using AI to produce new goods and services, rather than simply trying to replace workers.

The excessive focus on human-like AI, he writes, drives down wages for most people “even as it amplifies the market power of a few” who own and control the technologies

the obsession with mimicking human intelligence has led to AI and automation that too often simply replace workers, rather than extending human capabilities and allowing people to do new tasks.

“You are going to be made to choose, or at least you will be pulled one way or another.”

Time and again South-East Asian countries have said they do not want to have to choose between America and China

does not play by its own rules

How can it condemn Russia for securing a sphere of interest, when Western powers have done the same with Guam, the Falkland Islands and New Caledonia—territories belonging to America, Britain and France, respectively? “What is the difference?” she asks.

According to a YouGov poll in late March, 54% of Indians approved of Mr Putin’s leadership in the first month of the war (and, confusingly, 63% of Mr Zelensky’s). Fully 40% supported Russia’s invasion.

They blame the war on American provocation of Russia, including NATO’s expansion.

In Singapore, where officials have been gung-ho about joining in with America, citizens are more circumspect. Many ethnic-Chinese Singaporeans consume China’s state media, which tout a pro-Russian line. They think that Singapore should cosy up to China, and believe that America provoked the Russian invasion

When touring South-East Asia, senior White House officials mainly focused on finding ways of meeting countries’ economic and security needs, rather than lecturing to them about politics.

Vietnam is a secretive Communist dictatorship. Both are on increasingly good terms with America and wary of China, but are also big buyers of Russian arms. For their own security, they see a need to preserve good relationships in Moscow.

Most of the kit goes to Vietnam, which imports 80% of its arms from Russia, but hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of guns also flow to Myanmar, Laos and Thailand.

Although most countries voted at the UN in early March to condemn the invasion, many in their follow-up statements refrained from naming and shaming Russia, and later abstained from the vote suspending it from the UN’s human-rights body.

Concerned that it might embolden big countries to bully small ones, the city-state has placed sanctions on Russia

Though it is a big exporter of arms, South Korea has repeatedly refused to supply Ukraine with weapons. It has imposed sanctions on Russia, albeit more slowly than its Western allies. But since the war began it has boosted its imports of cheap Russian energy. (So, too, has Taiwan.)

the G20 as well as APEC meetings in Thailand and the annual East Asia Summit in Cambodia,

“The future of global order will be decided not by wars in Europe but by the contest in Asia,

responses to Russia’s invasion have been dictated first by cold calculations of interests,

They think Asians see America and its allies as hypocrites, who have themselves invaded countries and given refugees from war-torn places outside Europe a hard time.

a failure of the West to win the moral argument.

Yet many Asian countries, including big democracies like India and Indonesia, are reluctant to criticise Russia openly.

there is no evidence that Mr Putin faces any serious domestic challenge.

he knows that almost everything the West could do to him is already in process—short of a ban on Russian energy imports that Mr Putin surely believes is coming soon anyway.

the stakes for military failure could hardly be higher

all of these explanations undermine Mr Putin’s credibility, both at home and abroad, and compromise the effectiveness of Russia’s armed forces for years to come.

he failed to prepare the Russian public for the true human, financial and material costs of his “special military operation.”

Europe that it must stop buying Russia’s most valuable exports

given NATO a sense of unity and purpose

his army is ineffectual

his war has given Ukraine a stronger sense of national identity than it’s ever had before and transformed it into Russia’s bitter enemy

There is no plausible outcome in Ukraine that won’t leave Mr Putin and Russia far worse off than before February 24th, when the war began.

Central banks must ensure that the currencies are successful, but not too successful.

Caps on virtual cash would, however, mean that it would no longer be a store of value.

Physical cash typically satisfies three functions of money: it is a unit of account, a means of exchange and a store of value

That would turn the central bank into a mighty credit machine and an all-seeing tool of the surveillance state.

that lenders’ dependence on central banks would alter the balance of relations by giving central banks power to determine who gets credit.

Deposits are a source of cheap funding for banks. If they drained away, lenders would either have to raise money on pricier wholesale markets or scale back their lending.

Central banks want to stay in the money business by issuing digital currencies

The Bahamian sand dollar, the East Caribbean DCash and Nigeria’s e-naira are already circulating. China’s trial of its digital currency, e-CNY, has expanded to more than 260m wallets.

According to the Atlantic Council, a think-tank in Washington, DC, 89 countries making up 90% of world GDP are exploring a CBDC

The bulk of money is digital and created by commercial banks, albeit regulated ones. A cast of digital-money wannabes are vying for customers’ e-wallets. And central banks want to stay in the money business by issuing digital currencies of their own, making the questions Fahlbeck raised more relevant than ever.

Tesla, which on April 20th reported record sales in the first quarter, goes from strength to strength. Twitter helped fuel its rise.

As for the board, since it introduced a “poison pill” on April 15th, setting penalties if he lifts his stake above 15%, he has hit back. He has tweeted a poll that purports to show his followers are heavily in favour of shareholders deciding whether Twitter should be taken private, not the board. He has also noted how few Twitter shares board members own.

carbon-removal technologies have to pass several tests (besides obvious ones like being safe and legal). One is permanence: the technologies must be able to store the stuff sucked from the air for at least 1,000 years. Another is scalability: they must not have land-use requirements that are in conflict with food security. A third is cost: they must have a path towards a price tag of less than $100 per tonne of carbon dioxide removed (down from hundreds of dollars or more per tonne for existing techniques).

A similar AMC-esque project is expected to be unveiled in May at the annual plutocrat retreat in Davos hosted by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

As well as underestimating Ukraine’s sense of national identity, Mr Putin must have been highly confident in the capability of his armed forces to deliver a quick victory

“misperception”

“Intangible incentives”

Vladimir Putin may have invaded Ukraine to stop it turning West and becoming a successful liberal democracy, an example that could undermine his grip on power

“unchecked interests”

Mr Blattman identifies five “logical ways” why, despite all the reasons to compromise, people opt to fight.

As long as both sides have a realistic appreciation of the huge price of fighting

a call for an “international treaty on pandemic prevention and preparedness” issued in March 2021 by a group of 25 heads of government and NGOs.

“we must act on Covid-19’s lessons and innovate so that we can deliver swift, equitable health solutions to prevent the next pandemic.”

It’s not possible to talk about “AI for everyone” (Google’s rhetoric), “responsible AI” (Facebook’s rhetoric), or “broadly distribut[ing]” its benefits (OpenAI’s rhetoric) without honestly acknowledging and confronting the obstacles in the way.

how AI is impoverishing the communities and countries that don’t have a say in its development—the same communities and countries already impoverished by former colonial empires

Venezuela

In part one, we head to South Africa, where AI surveillance tools, built on the extraction of people’s behaviors and faces, are re-entrenching racial hierarchies and fueling a digital apartheid.

The AI industry does not seek to capture land as the conquistadors of the Caribbean and Latin America did, but the same desire for profit drives it to expand its reach. The more users a company can acquire for its products, the more subjects it can have for its algorithms, and the more resources—data—it can harvest from their activities, their movements, and even their bodies.

a “data colonialism,”

Over the last few years, an increasing number of scholars have argued that the impact of AI is repeating the patterns of colonial history.

The very idea treats languages like a person, with a name, birth date and birthplace. But languages are not like an individual. They are much more like a species, gradually diverging from another over many years. It would be as accurate to describe such jottings as degenerate Latin as it is to call them early Spanish—but that would probably not draw as many tourists.

the Russo-Ukrainian conflict could last in a semi-frozen state for decades, threatening international stability and periodically bursting into renewed fighting. It might even escalate into nuclear confrontation.

Possession of Ukraine has long been essential to Russia’s existence as a great empire; its secession in 1991 sealed the Soviet Union’s fate. Crimea's loss hit Russians especially hard. The great naval base in Sevastopol was vital to Russian power in the Black Sea region and had a unique place in Russia’s historical memory (owed above all to the great sieges during the Crimean and second world wars).

After 1945, the Soviet Union was the surviving empire. Now we are living with the consequences of its collapse.

Much of the Middle East is still living with the consequences of the demise of the Ottoman empire and of the British and French empires that briefly filled part of the void the Ottomans left behind.

America and its allies could, then, suffer considerable pain if they imposed on China the same sanctions they have inflicted on Russia. For that reason, they would probably not dare go that far. But they must hope that China does not dare to find out.

European sanctions, for example, initially spared Russia’s $2.4bn market for luxury goods: the so-called “Gucci exemption”. The same market in China is worth over $50bn a year, according to Statista, a data provider.

China, for its part, might curb exports of the “rare earths” used in many electronic goods. It could disrupt the supply chain for electric-vehicle batteries and other manufacturing niches

China’s biggest source of leverage is its own vast market. America might, for example, wish to deprive it of certain high-tech inputs, such as semiconductors. But a complete ban would cost American semiconductor firms 37% of their revenues, according to Boston Consulting Group, and jeopardise over 120,000 jobs.

China accounts for about 18% of America’s imports and over 22% of the EU’s, including many parts and components used in domestic manufacturing (see chart)

Less than a fifth of China’s trade last year was settled in its own currency. Much of the rest was conducted in dollars.

The combined total is over six times the size of the equivalent foreign holdings in Russia.

At the end of last year, foreigners owned $3.6trn in direct investments, including immovable factories, and $2.2trn in shares, bonds and other “portfolio” investments

China probably keeps about two-thirds of its $3.2trn of foreign-exchange reserves in Western government bonds and the like.

crippling sanctions on Russia’s central bank, removing from its reach about half of its foreign-exchange reserves

“WOULD THE US really dare to freeze or confiscate China’s reserve assets?”

a combination of more clutter and more things to hit could begin a slow-motion chain reaction, in which each collision produces more debris, making future collisions more likely.

The coming decades will require democracies to work together to recreate an international system that privileges their values

The EU GDPR, 2019 Cybersecurity Act, and Digital Services Act

outh Korea initiated the process to join the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, a plurilateral agreement between Singapore, New Zealand, and Chile intended to strengthen digital trade and establish standards for digital cooperation

the India-Japan memorandum of understanding to enhance cooperation in the field of ICT was signed on January 15, 2021.

Like-minded countries must willingly set aside parochial disputes among themselves, adopt “good enough” solutions, and begin implementing an alternative digital ecosystem that reinforces shared interests and values.

the U.S.-led Clean Network initiative

the March 2020 Australia-Singapore Digital Economy Agreement,

apan’s Data Free Flow with Trust initiative

If the PRC continues to construct its own digital ecosystem, then it should not benefit from a digital ecosystem established around liberal values.

democracies would formalize frictionless data transfers between like-minded states and impose significant data restrictions on authoritarian regimes and their commercial entities.

Germany’s Digitalization Act, passed in January 2021, also targets large U.S. digital platforms and tech companies and will likely prove equally harmful.1

Using comparative advantage within the community of like-minded nations, while denying access and advantage to the PRC, is a more effective approach.

within the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement and the U.S.-Japan Digital Trade Agreement offer a roadmap for expansion.

Among democracies, localization requirements, data barriers, and discriminatory treatment of digital products, platforms, and components should be removed.

Expand digital trade provisions to include more democracies.

Reaching a consensus should require compromise on the part of all participants.

pursue a common agenda for the application of regulatory and policy tools.

This grouping should include the EU, Japan, India, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Israel, Canada, Australia, and the United States—nearly 2.5 billion people.

export controls, investment screening, anti-dumping/countervailing duties, and sanctions

Employ coordinated regulatory and policy tools across democracies to provide advantages to like-minded countries while disadvantaging authoritarian regimes and their corporate entities.

The first wave of the digital revolution promised that new technologies would favor democracy and human rights. The second wave saw an authoritarian counterrevolution. And the question now is whether we can engineer a third wave of the digital revolution—a turn in which we forge a democratic technological ecosystem characterized by resilience, integrity, and openness with trust and security, that reinforces our democratic values and our democratic institutions.

Rather than try to persuade the CCP to accept liberal norms and abandon its quest to build a digital ecosystem that reinforces an authoritarian governance model, democracies should set about building an alternative system and exclude the PRC from gaining nonreciprocal access.