CDT Statement on Administration’s U.S. International Strategy for Cyberspace

Washington — The Center for Democracy & Technology welcomes the release today of the U.S. International Strategy for Cyberspace.  The strategy presents a comprehensive set of principles to guide all aspects of US government activity that impact the Internet. The Administration has articulated a vision of an open, interoperable, secure, and reliable Internet through which people are empowered to exercise fundamental freedoms.

The International Strategy presents a change in the US government's approach to cyberspace, but does not offer changes to particular policies. Rather, it offers a description of the fundamental values that underlie US policies and a guide to agencies as they craft their own strategies for cyberspace.

"By putting these principles forward, the Administration has invited civil society and the world at large to hold the government accountable to the principles it has articulated," said CDT President Leslie Harris. "As is the case with any document of this breadth, some principles outlined in the strategy will sometimes come into conflict — one measure of who we are as a nation will be how those conflicts are resolved."