Over the years, diplomacy has gradually expanded to new policy fields, entering uncharted political territories such as climate negotiations and cyber space. China and other countries have been expressing and advocating that cyberspace can no longer be controlled by the West and it it completely logical for cyber space politics to have diverse representations and it is evidently in China’s interest to represent the current power balance in the international power system. Government regulation and control over the free Internet is a matter of existential issue for authoritarian countries, while democratic countries prefer an open and free cyberspace. The traditional power structures and conventional power dynamics of the previous century are clearly evident in cyber space as well.

WHAT IS CYBER DIPLOMACY ?

Cyber-diplomacy is described as diplomacy in the cyber domain, or the use of diplomatic tools and the performance of diplomatic functions to protect national interests in cyberspace. Cybersecurity, cybercrime, confidence-building, internet freedom, and internet governance are all on the cyber-diplomacy agenda. (Cyber-diplomacy: the making of an international society in the digital age – André Barrinha and Thomas Renard – https://estudogeral.uc.pt/bitstream/10316/83482/1/Cyber%20diplomacy.pdf )

Building Multilateral Engagement and Strategic Partnerships, building strategic alliances with other countries around the world to promote joint action and collaboration against common challenges, forming like-minded coalitions on critical policy issues, exchanging intelligence and national programs, and fighting bad actors are all part of cyber diplomacy. A new dimension of international affairs is a collection of diplomatic activities dealing with the narrowly specified regulation of cyberspace.