Some Reflections on The Sydney Dialogue
By Ravi Nayyar
A huge thank you to the good folk at ASPI for inviting me to participate in 2024’s edition of The Sydney Dialogue, a flagship international forum on all things geopolitics x geoeconomics x technology.
I wrote this short article as a meditation on my larger takeaways from the two days at the International Conventional Centre in, you guessed it, Sydney. And thus why fora like The Sydney Dialogue matter.
(This piece is separate to my longread diary piece on the summit.)
Having usually attended industry-/academia-focused conferences on cyber policy, it was fantastic to get to go to one on all things geopolitics x technology where government was very well-represented and hear Track 1 give their side of the story in person. Especially Track 1 from other parts of the world, including our CEE cousins.
My head tends to be in the niche of cyber/software security policy and law because of my PhD, so I appreciated the opportunity to broaden my horizons when it comes to national security law, international relations and strategic policy. To see how my research fits into the larger scheme of things, the larger game played by countries and companies, to help ensure my analyses are grounded in the broader realities that they actually exist in.
To see what other communities of researchers and officials are talking about and where I come in regarding those issues, and vice versa.
Complexity theory and all that.
I loved attending The Sydney Dialogue, not just because of the sessions on a range of interesting topics (and getting to ask a few questions therein!), but also the conversations with an eclectic bunch of far wiser and more experienced people over lunch or a cookie. Be they government officials from partner countries, leading academics or industry practitioners, I learned something from each one of them.
Be it on Indian foreign policy, what should be running in the kernel, the difference between Chinese and Taiwanese cuisines, the role of corporate and markets regulators, first principles cyber and software security regulation, cyber terrorism or Taiwanese cyber-preparedness.
Pretty much everyone I spoke with had a good story. My highlight was listening to a CEE official passionately narrate the history of their polity’s identity over centuries and how that history underpins their country’s strategic policy, be it in backing Ukraine to the hilt or joining hands with democracies here in the Indo-Pacific, including Taiwan.
I love speaking to people with that sense of mission, especially one rooted in history and country.
Now, I was merely a PhD kiddie waddling about, picking the brains of these actual experts and officials for my research. They’re the movers and shakers, having those key conversations in the big meeting rooms at the other end of Level 3 of the International Convention Centre and at the subsequent Cyber Champions Summit which included a ‘regional side event’ from the CRI (yeah, many cyber-facing officials were in town).
Indeed, the real action at these conferences is what Track 1(.5) gets up to on the sidelines. Like how at major multilateral summits, it’s the diplomacy on the sidelines (and intelligence collection by certain members of delegations on official cover).
But sure, whether it’s Tracks 1(.5) or 2, events like The Sydney Dialogue are awesome because of the conversations and connections in the plenary hall, meeting rooms and by the coffee carts. Concerning a whole host of topics. Enriching our shared understanding of the issues that matter, especially issues that can get left behind amid the jargon and buzzwords.
Building said understanding as a collective group of officials, industry practitioners, academics and civil society folk is vital when it comes to how geopolitics, geoeconomics, foreign policy and technology fit together.
The ASPI chief, Justin Bassi’s, point about technological change as ‘cumulative and cross-pollinating’ aptly describes the positive externalities of summits like The Sydney Dialogue, these accelerators for foreign, strategic, economic and technology policy ideation.
Such acceleration is vital because technological change itself is accelerating.
As Justin highlighted:
Progress is happening so quickly that governments and societies struggle to understand revolutionary and disruptive technology, much less mobilise effective responses.
As he said to kick us off on Day 2, the timeframes that societies, economies and governments have to react to the evolution of the state of the art are becoming rather compressed:
We are building the plane at the same time as we are flying it.
And that’s before we get to the speed with which hostile foreign powers like China, Russia, Iran and the DPRK, as well as (cyber)criminals, terrorists and hacktivists are leveraging said disruptive innovation against us.
Yes, technology is a fantastic enabler for our collective betterment.
But it is a two-edged sword, perhaps even a shuriken.
Making fora like The Sydney Dialogue all the more important.
As Mr Bassi put it:
As the power of technology grows — and everyone in this room knows that’s the course we’re on — the stakes are getting higher and the conversations more vital. That’s why we’re all here.
So, there is my larger meditation on The Sydney Dialogue.
I’ve also written a diary piece where I analyse some of the sessions from the summit, and provide my two cents on the debates and discussions.
Have a read and tell me what you think!
