ASEAN Cyber Governance Cooperation Under The Dilemma Of Global Cyberspace Governanc

Currently,cyberspace has penetrated into global political,social and economic life and has had a huge impact on international affairs,thus putting forward higher requirements for global governance in cyberspace.The physical dependency and borderless nature of cyberspace,anonymity and interconnectedness,as well as the dual-use nature of the military and the civilian,mean that the state is no longer the only subject of governance in cyberspace;actors and their behaviour in cyberspace exist separately from each other,and cooperative actors can act as both governors and potential threats.In recent years the focus in the field of global cyberspace governance is shifting from technical to social governance,and the main Internet coverage is shifting from the global North to the global South.The dilemma of global cyberspace governance is evolving in a global,holistic and longitudinal direction.Combining the above issues and relevant theories of global governance,this paper constructs an analytical framework at three levels: institutional philosophy,confidence in governance and governance capacity,a framework that corresponds to the competing values,confidence measure building challenges and the imbalance between supply and demand in capacity building that exist in cyberspace governance.The competition between multi-stakeholder governance and multilateralism,and the competition between the concepts of governance such as cyber freedom and cyber sovereignty have been formed among major powers;the complex characteristics of the network such as anonymity,virtualization and difficulty in attribution,and the trend of militarization of the network have led to a low level of cyber confidence between countries,difficulty in confidence building and increased uncertainty in the implementation of confidence measures;there is also an imbalance in the distribution of cyber resources and cyber capabilities at the global level.There are also imbalances in the distribution of cyber resources and cyber capabilities at the global level,and other imbalances in the global cyberspace governance structure.This has led to a lack of systematic cyber norms in global cyberspace,unclear application of relevant international regulations,and difficulties in establishing cybersecurity cooperation among countries.While these issues are bottlenecked at the global level,what is the situation of governance at the regional level,which is relatively small in scale? Have better governance experiences been developed on these three difficult issues?ASEAN has achieved important results at the level of cyber norm implementation and regional cyber security cooperation.In this paper,ASEAN is chosen as the subject of regional cyber governance observation.On the one hand,unlike other regional organisations that have moved towards the EU and become more dependent on Western cyber governance concepts,ASEAN is developing an approach to cyber governance and cooperation that is characterised by autonomy and resilience.On the other hand,ASEAN’s differences on these issues should be further amplified given the large differences among its member states,yet ASEAN has achieved more significant results,highlighting its unique approach and experience in dealing with the cyber governance dimension.This paper therefore analyses how ASEAN has addressed these challenges,advanced cybersecurity cooperation and cyberspace governance,and achieved significant progress in the context of the global cyberspace governance dilemma.Firstly,how has ASEAN addressed and responded to the competing subjects and concepts of cyberspace governance? Rather than choosing sides on the competing values of global cyberspace governance,the ASEAN region has focused on bridging differences internally and maintaining consistency externally.Through appropriate ambiguity in discursive formulation and a balance of competing options at the operational level,it has avoided intra-regional disputes over governance concepts,maintained a certain degree of autonomy and adapted to its strategies and interests in cyberspace.By bridging regional differences,strengthening regional identity and playing a leading regional role,ASEAN has thus enhanced regional coordination,improved regional cohesion and played a leading regional role in cyber governance.ASEAN has found a middle way that suits its needs and has developed a model of inter-sectoral coordination on cyber governance based on governance issues and openness to the participation of all actors,with two-way interaction between the top and bottom.Secondly,how is ASEAN addressing the cyber confidence challenge? ASEAN’s regional security dialogue platform,CBM experience and ASEAN’s unique consensus and consultative approach have brought together countries in the Asia-Pacific region in an ASEAN-led cyber confidence-building mechanism.By strengthening cyber confidence-building measures under the ASEAN Centre consensus,the existing regional security governance platform,which uses the ASEAN Centre as a guideline,will continue to function as a norm to maintain a balanced regional security order.This process will be implemented mainly through the coordination of inter-sectoral cooperation and support for the role of non-state actors in CBMs.CBM building in ASEAN cyberspace governance has taken on both formal leadership at the level of member governments through a sectoral cooperation model,as well as an issue-oriented role for non-state actors,resulting in mechanisms such as threat information sharing,common regional cyber crisis response,and cyber defence networks.Finally,how is ASEAN addressing the challenges of cyberspace governance structures?Faced with the imbalance in the distribution of resources and capabilities in the cyber governance structure,ASEAN has constructed cyberspace governance as a process of cyber capacity building,and ASEAN’s cyber capacity building presents a governance pattern characterised by demand-driven,strong-state led and pluralistic participation.ASEAN insists on demand-led bridging the imbalance in cyber resources in order to meet the needs of member states in a more targeted manner.As a leader in regional cyber security capacity building,Singapore has played the role of an advocate,funder and coordinator,leading a more inclusive and diverse cyber security capacity building process in which more non-state actors can participate.Capacity building initiatives with sustained and far-reaching impact have been developed within the ASEAN region,and differences in cyber governance capacity at the ASEAN regional level have narrowed,with some improvement in the cyber capacity of member states that are lagging behind in the region,such as Vietnam’s significant progress in its cyber security index.The global cyberspace governance dilemma is not homogeneously reflected in each region,but is projected in the ASEAN regional context.ASEAN has developed a collaborative cyber governance process characterised by intersectoral adherence to an ’ASEAN hub’ and cyber capacity building.The ASEAN cyberspace governance model demonstrates that a given region can develop a cyberspace governance model that reflects regional autonomy and resilience,tailored to its level of development and regional interests,and can proactively shape,lead and coordinate the cyber governance process within and beyond the region,rather than being a passive recipient of governance ideas,models and capabilities.ASEAN has explored a unique governance path that combines its own sectoral approach with the participation of non-state actors,resulting in a two-way interactive model of cyberspace governance.Of course,ASEAN also has its own limitations in addressing and dealing with these difficult issues,such as its caution on sovereignty issues,which to a certain extent has prevented ASEAN from establishing binding regional cyber governance regulations,etc.As a more typical region for cyberspace governance cooperation,ASEAN is also an arena for competition among major powers in cyberspace.The study on ASEAN cyber governance cooperation enriches the knowledge on the path and mechanism of cyber governance cooperation based on the unique regional context,and thus has certain practical and theoretical significance.