Roundtable Wrap-Up: RT 11-Wednesday

Started the day off right with a speech by ADM Dennis Blair, former Director of National Intelligence. He had some interesting insight into developments in cyber warfare and cyber security. The conversation at the roundtable first discussed the speech. Can we reinvent the Internet to make it more secure? In what image would it form? We decided that even if it were possible to recreate the Internet in another, the legality of such actions would be questionable at best. Who would be watching to make sure that the Internet forms right? Will they have access to all the information on the Web? There would have to be a worldwide consensus to change the Internet and that is unlikely to happen.

Who should be protecting cyberspace: the government or private industry? Both can help, but the interests of the business need to line up with the interests of the government, which is often not the case. Businesses are motivated by profit while government is motivated by a need to please and help people. But there can’t be only one option because that leads to corruption and monopoly. Is there extent to what the government can protect and what it can’t? It obviously needs to protect financial and national security concerns but what else? Social sites? Banks? Private businesses? What the government can protect ultimately comes down to budget. If government does decide to cooperate with businesses, how is that relationship portrayed by the rest of the world? Well, it depends on the country, but countries don’t always trust private companies, especially when they try to exploit them.

Regardless of the view of business, there are changes that need to be made to adapt to a globally interconnected world. First, bring in progressive thinkers and young people who understand the ways of technology. Once that infrastructure is established, the learning curve for the rest of the country will be quite steep. But this can only happen if the fear of technology and what technology brings is overcome. Familiarity brings comfort and acceptance. The same thing is true of cultural dissemination; people have to want it to happen, it can’t be forced. We finished with America’s role in the world. Some said we should focus on security then on soft power. Others said we should be the police of the world in the form of international organizations and regimes. We place our national interests over anything else and we should. But we need to decide to change ourselves for the better of the world though at the same focus on our domestic problems. Find that balance.