ALI Conference on a Global Digital Strategy for America
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ALI hosted a conference on a Global Digital Strategy for America, featuring a keynote address by Senator Robert Menendez, panels discussing domestic and international digital policies, featuring Congresswomen Del Bene, Murphy and Houlahan, Ambassador Michael Froman, Ambassador Karen Kornbluh, Fred Humphries, VP, Microsoft, Wendy Cutler, VP Asia Society Policy Institute, and Scott Kennedy, Director, CSIS Center for China Business and Economics, and moderated by Steve Clemons, Editor at Large, at The Hill.
Senator Menendez discussed the importance of American global leadership and recently introduced bill, America LEADS, which invests in upgrading U.S. competitiveness and economic statecraft to meet the challenge of a rising China. The panelists discussed the imperative of universal broadband and STEM and digital training , including ensuring that training is accessible to marginalized communities, investments to upgrade American R&D, and the need for a robust U.S. digital regulatory agenda. The international panel discussed the importance of repairing relations with America’s allies and developing a global governance agenda, creating standards to ensure an internet that is open, transparent, and democratic. The group also discussed the importance of collaborating with allies to address China’s technology practices and the need for a Digital Marshall Plan that will allow U.S. companies to compete on equal footing with Chinese companies receiving subsidized financing and allowing developing countries to purchase equipment that is consistent with an internet that is open and democratic, as opposed to Chinese equipment that supports an autocratic internet allowing censorship and monitoring.
Panelists referred to and endorsed many of the recommendations in ALI’s just published report, A Global Digital Strategy for America. A recording of the full program is available on YouTube at ALI Presents: A Global Digital Strategy for America - YouTube.
