The White House today announced the United States’ first, comprehensive International Strategy for Cyberspace. Streamed live on WhiteHouse.gov, the rollout was conducted by a megawatt team including Secretary Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Deputy Secretary of Defense Bill Lynch, and top White House cyber security officials.

The Strategy lays out the President’s vision for the future of the Internet, and sets an agenda for partnering with others to achieve that vision.  The Strategy is realistic about the challenges ahead, and it emphasizes that policies must continue to be grounded in core principles of fundamental freedom, privacy, and the free flow of information if the benefits produced by networked technologies are to continue.

Given her long-standing leadership on internet freedom and other cyber issues, the Secretary was a logical and compelling voice at the rollout.  I’ll let her outline the Strategy and its goals in her own words:

In a preface to the Strategy, President Obama himself eloquently explains the impulse behind developing and advocating an integrated approach to cyberspace:

“The digital world is no longer a lawless frontier, nor the province of a small elite. It is a place where the norms of responsible, just, and peaceful conduct among states and peoples have begun to take hold. It is one of the finest examples of a community self-organizing, as civil society, academia, the private sector, and governments work together democratically to ensure its effective management. Most important of all, this space continues to grow, develop, and promote prosperity, security, and openness as it has since its invention. This is what sets the Internet apart in the international environment, and why it is so important to protect.”

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