Foreword
Danielle Cave and Fergus Hanson; Convenors, The Sydney DialogueMajor advances in technology have always been disruptive. But when they occur against a backdrop of great power competition, the stable development and deployment of these technologies becomes fraught.
Few have grasped the enormity of the disruption coming our way as more and more new technologies – from increasingly sophisticated surveillance to quantum and biotechnologies – are deployed across the world. While governments grapple with foreseeing the full impacts and setting policy direction, there’s a growing realisation that emerging and critical technologies will be extraordinarily important for societies, economies and national security.
We launched The Sydney Dialogue to support a more stable roll-out of the next wave of transformational technologies. It is a forum allowing for frank debate about the rapidly changing strategic landscape, and a space for governments, business and civil society to come together to focus on solutions, cooperation and policy options.
The Sydney Dialogue came about because we saw big gaps in forums on...
A Middle Path to Economic CooperationCreating Bubbles of Trust Among Quad Countries to Manage China
2021
Nitin Pai
Director, Takshashila Institution
Today’s global retreat away from free movement of goods, services, capital, people and ideas across national borders is not so much a consequence of globalisation, but of its skewed pattern over the past four decades. The world’s acquiescence to an asymmetric globalisation favouring China allowed Beijing to attain the power it is now using to undermine liberal democratic values around the world.
Even before General Secretary Xi Jinping formally required Chinese firms to follow the political agenda of the Chinese Communist Party, private businesses there were never non-state corporate entities in the way they are in liberal democracies. It was never possible to tell where private ownership ended and the party-state began.
Read More Even before General Secretary Xi Jinping formally required Chinese firms to follow the political agenda of the Chinese Communist Party, private businesses there were never non-state corporate entities in the way they are in liberal democracies. It was never possible to tell where private ownership ended and the party-state began.
Digital Democracy in TaiwanCrowdsourcing for an Inclusive and Resilient Indo-Pacific
2021
Audrey Tang
Digital Minister of Taiwan
COVID-19 has stress-tested democracies across the world, and the results have left something to be desired. Many democracies, including those in the Indo-Pacific, have been revealed as flawed and failing – either grasping for authority or gasping for relevance. Is this really surprising, though, given that we have done so little to modernise these institutions that stretch back to ancient Athens?
Read More Brave New WorldThe Power of Digital Liberal Democracy in an Age of Pandemic
2021
Jun Sawada
President and CEO, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
The coronavirus pandemic has seen technology-enabled centralised control bleed into ever greater parts of our lives. But centralisation of power almost always spells disaster for humanity. Whether led by companies or governments, centralisation initiatives always have a certain appealing logic when examined within a microcosm. But taking a wider view, it becomes clear there are good reasons to look elsewhere for solutions to our challenges. We need nothing short of a new paradigm: digital liberal democracy.
Read More Keeping the Internet OpenContrasting Visions of the Internet Could Define the Indo-Pacific’s Future
2021
Nick Clegg
Vice-President of Global Affairs, Meta
The global internet is at a defining moment. Policymakers and regulators across Asia and around the world are writing rules that will shape our relationship with the internet for decades to come. Laws are being proposed governing everything from privacy and content to how data is held, shared and used at scale.
Read More Made in ChinaA Digital Agenda for the Quad
2021
Dr Samir Saran
Observer Research Foundation
Dr Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan
Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology, Observer Research Foundation
In the Indo-Pacific and beyond, China’s growth in capabilities and political authoritarianism are now threatening to alter how we engage with technology and digital domains. China believes it has the right to access other nations’ information and networks without offering up access to its own. This is not a simple techno-mercantilism. There is a single purpose to China’s deepening investments in existing and future technologies: furthering the agenda of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). For Beijing, technology is about both national security and ideology.
Read More Preparing for New ChallengesWhy the Indo-Pacific Needs Its Own Hybrid Threats Centre
2021
Danielle Cave
Deputy Director, ASPI International Cyber Policy Centre
Dr Jake Wallis
Program Head of Information Operations and Disinformation, ASPI International Cyber Policy Centre
The brisk construction of AUKUS – the new Australia–UK–US technology-focused trilateral that made world headlines in September – is an example of how the strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific is changing, and quickly. Traditional security issues continue to loom large, but today’s most pressing challenges are shifting to less familiar domains: cyberspace, technology and the information environment.
Read More Time for the Tech Industry to Step Up for WomenGreater Global Collaboration to Minimise Online Harms
2021
Julie Inman Grant
Australian eSafety Commissioner
Anne Dunn-Baleilevuka
Fijian Online Safety Commissioner
Gendered abuse starts young – almost 60 per cent of all girls worldwide experience some form of online sexual harm. Yes, you read that statistic right. As the world’s first online safety commissioners, we believe it is time to act on online gender-based violence so that across the Indo-Pacific and beyond, all people can reap the benefits that connectivity and critical technologies provide without fear.
Read More A Democratic Counter to Chinese CensorshipHow to Protect Global Free Expression in the TikTok Era
2021
Paul Scharre
Vice President and Director of Studies, Center for a New American Security
Kara Frederick
Technology Policy Fellow, The Heritage Foundation
China’s rise as a global technology leader poses a profound challenge to democratic nations in the Indo-Pacific and around the world. Under the umbrella of Beijing’s protectionism, Chinese tech giants such as Tencent and ByteDance have grown some of the largest social media platforms in the world, such as WeChat, QQ and Qzone.
With TikTok (owned by ByteDance), Chinese social media platforms are going global. As their reach expands beyond China’s borders, they risk Chinese Communist Party (CCP) censorship. Beijing is exporting more than technology; it is exporting its censorship of ‘sensitive topics’ that offend CCP leaders, and in the process threatening the democratic principle of free expression.
Read More With TikTok (owned by ByteDance), Chinese social media platforms are going global. As their reach expands beyond China’s borders, they risk Chinese Communist Party (CCP) censorship. Beijing is exporting more than technology; it is exporting its censorship of ‘sensitive topics’ that offend CCP leaders, and in the process threatening the democratic principle of free expression.
No Accountability Without LiabilityTech Companies Hold Key to Cybersecurity
2021
Marietje Schaake
International Policy Director, Stanford University Cyber Policy Center
At the White House cybersecurity summit in August 2021, US President Joe Biden made a revealing acknowledgement: most critical infrastructure is now in the hands of private companies. This dramatic reality evolved almost unnoticed over the past decades and has accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic. The combination of an unprecedented dependence on technology and new methods of cyberattacks have made systemic cyber vulnerability an urgent problem.
Read More Building a More Resilient EconomyHow China is Leveraging Digital Infrastructure and Manufacturing
2021
Rui Ma
Founder of Tech Buzz China
In a presentation shared widely on Chinese social media, Chen Li, chief economist at Soochew Securities, declared: ‘We have abandoned the American path to the German path.’ Chris Leung, chief China economist at DBS Group Holdings, soon echoed the sentiment: ‘The departure of Beijing from the Anglo-Saxon model has already begun … The German model is a strong contender as a guiding development model.’
Read More Investing in South-East Asia’s Tech FutureHow to Bridge the Digital Divide
2021
Dr Huong Le Thu
Senior analyst, ASPI
The digital divide and rising inequality are now the everyday bromides of earnest policymakers. But the phrases have become policy cliches, stripped of meaning, with no sense of the underlying dynamics at play, making the prospects for any viable solutions slim. The Covid-19 pandemic has offered a harsh look at the role of the digital divide in driving inequality and the unedifying future that lies ahead as major technological advances compound and permanently entrench inequality.
Read More The Sydney Dialogue acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the land and pays respect to the Elders both past and present. We honour and respect the significant role they play for our community.
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The Sydney Dialogue acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the land and pays respect to the Elders both past and present. We honour and respect the significant role they play for our community.
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