Guest editorial
| Date | 14 January 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-01-2019-064 |
| Pages | 1-1 |
| Published date | 14 January 2019 |
| Author | Milton Mueller,Farzaneh Badiei |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information policy |
Guest editorial
Milton Mueller and Farzaneh Badiei
Special issue on digital trade vs cyber nationalism
Cross-border tradein digital products and services is both a rapidly growingelement of
the economy and an increasingly controversial policy domain. The growth of a digital
economy brings with it a new set of issues in political economy, even as it replays
classic debatesover protectionism and national sovereignty.
Trade in data and information services is at the center of many policy controversies:
from China’s cybersecuritylaw restricting outward information flows and inward foreign
investment, to the massive adjustments triggered by Europe’s General DataProtection
Regulation (GDPR), to Trump’s trade war on China and renegotiation of NAFTA, to the
contested effects of “e-commerce”chapters and data localization provisions on human
rights.
This special issue of Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance explores various
aspects of the conflict between an open, globally interconnected internet and current
trends toward protectionismand cyber-nationalism. While there is a growing amount of
scholarly literature on digital economy and trade, few scholars are looking at the issue
holistically, in a way that includesissues in trade theory, measurement and definition of
digital trade, national securityand human rights, as well as trade policy. The papers in
this issue try to span all of those dimensions.
In their paper “Data flows and Digital Economy,” Milton Mueller and Karl Grindal
analyze a new source of empiricaldata about the direction of global Web data flows and
map its relationship to other forms of trade. In an attempt to situateinformation flows in
trade theory, they find striking correlations between “imbalances” in Web traffic and
trade balances in goods and services. In her paper “Digital trade in Latin America:
mapping issues and approaches,”Carolina Aguerre takes a broad overview of the way
internet governance and digital trade policy are interacting in a major region of the
developing world. AnnegretBendiek’s paper “Externalizing Europe: The Global Effects
of European Data Protection” explores the way Europe leveraged its
data interdependence with the USA to export its stronger privacy protections to the
world.
Papers by Martina Ferracane and Karl Grindalexplore the relationship between digital
trade and national security. Ferracane’s paper, “Data Flows & National Security,”
proposes a conceptual frameworkto assess restrictions on data flows under the GATS
national security exception. Grindal’s analysis of “Trade Regimes as a Tool for Cyber
Policy” also provides a conceptual framework to assess the use of tradepolicy tools to
promote cybersecuritygoals.
Most of the papers in this issue were developed for and presented at the annual
workshop of the Internet Governance Project at the Georgia Institute of Technology,
which took place in Atlanta May 24 and 25, 2018. Together, they constitute a
solid contribution to one of the hottest issues in digital policy, regulation and
governance.
Milton Mueller and
Farzaneh Badiei are both
based at Georgia Institute of
Technology, Atlanta,
Georgia, USA.
DOI 10.1108/DPRG-01-2019-064 VOL. 21 NO. 1 2019, p. 1, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2398-5038 jDIGITAL POLICY, REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE jPAGE 1
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