Cyber Norms and International Law in ASEAN
Eugene Tan
Published in Regulating the Cyberspace: Perspectives from Asia (Editors Gisela Elsner, Aishwarya Natarajan)
The absence of a normative regime in cyberspace at the moment allows malicious actors to operate in a grey area where there is a low-risk, high-reward scenario to the attackers. In a sense, states operating today in cyberspace are bound in a situation akin to the Thucydidean scenario where the strong do what they want, and the weak suffer what they must.
In 2015, the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts (UNGGE) on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications (ICT) in the context of International Security proposed eleven norms to ensure responsible state behaviour in cyberspace. Having an agreed set of norms will benefit and affect all states in the international system, even those who have chosen not to adhere to the norms regime. There is a great reputational risk to states that choose to flagrantly ignore an internationally recommended norms regime.
ASEAN has done much to advance the creation of norms in the region under the chairmanship of Singapore in 2018. The 32nd ASEAN Summit in April 2018 brought forth a slew of statements from leaders recognising that norms and the rule of law are needed for cyberspace, and serve as a basis for using technology to advance economic growth in the region.
Read the full article at https://www.kas.de/en/web/rspa/single-title/-/content/regulating-the-cyberspace-perspectives-from-asia
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