China has the largest amount of users in the world, a significant digital economy growth potential, and its national Internet giants Alibaba, Didi, Tencent and Baidu are increasingly able to rival the biggest Western competitors in terms of market value and influence on the global tech landscape. China’s cyber diplomacy puts special attention towards equal participation, the principles of non-interference in internal affairs, non-use of force and peaceful settlement of disputes, and support for multilateral institutions to shape normative views on the governance of cyberspace. However, China’s propagation of the cyber-sovereignty approach to international cybersecurity policy and an absolutist reading of sovereignty in cyberspace provide a legal cloak for state practices that often run counter to the core European values of a global, open, and free Internet.
Costa Rica has established itself as a leading country in technological adoption, in combination with a complete commitment to sustainability and the protection of the environment.
Information and communications technology services accounted for 49% of the country’s exports (twice the average of OECD countries), placing the Central American country at the forefront of the digital economy.
The United Kingdom ranks 10
th in the 2021
Network Readiness Index (NRI), 9
th in the 2021
Digital Skills Gap Index and 14
th in the 2021
IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking. The British digital sector contributes roughly £149 billion each year to the economy and employs more than 1.5 million people [
x]. The country also remains Europe’s unofficial ‘start-up capital’, with British tech startups
attracting more than $15 billion in venture capital investment in the midst of a global pandemic. Nevertheless, new and emerging challenges to peace and security in cyberspace represent pressing concerns for the UK [
x]. Over the course of 2021, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre dealt with 777 significant incidents, with around 20% of supported organisations being linked to the health sector and Covid vaccines [
x]. In the face of ever-increasing cyber vulnerabilities, the UK government has recently adopted a
strategy of ‘levelling up’ protection for British cyberspace. This has brought international collaboration on cyber issues to the forefront of Britain’s diplomatic agenda. British diplomacy has traditionally championed the rules-based international system both online and offline,
placing great emphasis on human rights, democratic values and free trade.