President Obama and China: cyber diplomacy and strategy for a new era

ABSTRACT

President Obama was a cyber president. He understood the importance of cybersecurity and its implications for national security. Cyber issues were a major focus of Sino-US relations during his time in office. There was, however, a notable shift in the approach that the US took in its engagement in cyber diplomacy with China between Obama’s first (2009–2012) and second terms (2013–2016). It is important to understand why this shift occurred. Examining Sino-US cyber diplomacy in isolation will not provide the answers. There is a need to understand the broader context of Sino-US relations and what was occurring in more traditional diplomacy to get a more complete picture of the situation, particularly the impact of the pivot that occurred in late 2011. Despite the complexities of modern international relations and the difficulties of integrating cyber strategy and policy with broader Grand Strategy, it is important to examine how this was done. Analysing the example of Sino-US relations during Obama’s time in office demonstrates some important lessons for how cyber diplomacy cannot be isolated from the broader diplomatic context of a relationship, but needs to be analysed in the context of its integration into broader Grand Strategy.

KEYWORDS:

• Cyber diplomacy
• Sino-US relations
• President Obama
• pivot

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the fruitful discussions about this article and its contents engaged in with Professor Greg Austin. His wisdom was invaluable.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Sally K. Burt

Sally Burt Lecturer in Cyber Security, University of New South Wales, Canberra, received her PhD from the Australian National University in 2011. She is a specialist in US diplomatic history, Sino-US relations and the process of US foreign policy development both historically and in the current international environment. She also specialises in Cyber Diplomacy and Information Warfare. She is particularly interested in US relations with China and other parts of the Asia Pacific. Sally has published in the area of regional tensions and their historical development. She has been an editor and author or several books, journal articles reports, has presented internationally to conferences and summits. Sally has been a Visiting Fellow at the University of Florida and at West Point Military Academy in New York.