Digital border and human security

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For millennia, fluid physical frontiers and traditional concepts of territorial security defined the nature and scope of sociopolitical settings. However, as societies evolved and became increasingly interdependent and integrated, the relevance of physical boundaries came under increasing scrutiny, particularly after the formalisation of the nation-state system and sovereignty in the Westphalian Treaty in the mid-17th century.

The ensuing events laid the groundwork for global integration, interconnectedness and interdependence, or globalisation. Lately, digitalisation has sparked a debate about balancing digital rights with digital borders or national security.

A digital border is a system of virtual boundaries, cybersecurity measures and data privacy frameworks that regulate information flow across networks. It safeguards sensitive data, prevents unauthorised access and protects intellectual property, ensuring robust cybersecurity from the cyber domains of strategic threats. This way, it plays a key role in national security by protecting against cyber threats such as espionage, sabotage and disruption of critical infrastructure. Furthermore, digital borders help address propaganda and disinformation; defend economic interests; shield against cyberattacks, data breaches and cybercrimes; and check terrorist activities in digital space.

The nature of digital rights and digital borders may vary in each country with different socio-political cultures, citizens in democratic settings are essentially qualified for the greater rights: access to information, freedom of expression and civilised dissent, privacy, online security, digital literacy, online participation and net neutrality.

A human-centric approach to national security requires safeguarding citizens' rights and freedoms. For the provision of fundamental rights not only helps build public trust in the integration of the state but also makes every citizen a keyboard warrior against threats. In other words, societies that emphasise human security and fundamental rights effectively cultivate national and cybersecurity. Therefore, societies with human-centric strategic cultures are relatively immune from traditional and non-traditional threats and often enjoy prosperity and the accompanying digital rights.

However, the security states or societies facing traditional and non-traditional threats experience greater tension between national security interests and digital rights. This imbalance often stems from real or exaggerated security threats and resultant securitisation of a society and a lack of human security. Instead of pursuing pragmatic security policies aimed at directly addressing threats, most such states undermine citizens' rights, including the right to freedom of expression, in the name of national security. Digital censorship, surveillance, internet slowdowns and firewalls continue to erode digital rights with little, if any, impact on improving national security.

Owing to disregard for human security, they remain vulnerable to traditional and non-traditional threats. These threats exacerbate citizens' grievances; lead to increased securitisation and socio-economic and political instability; and intensify both conventional and non-traditional security challenges.

Digital borders, therefore, cut both ways: they deter national security threats while also potentially infringing on rights, particularly digital ones. On the one hand, they help safeguard national security and prevent cybercrime; on the other, they lead to censorship of information, surveillance of individuals and restrictions on access to online services and qualified digital rights.

For sustainable and holistic national security, digital surveillance should not override citizens' digital rights and human security. Instead, a balance should be struck between national security and digital rights. To this end, human security and people's welfare offer the best approach to balancing these competing interests, thus contributing to national security by preventing the emergence of new threats and aiding the state in battling existing ones.

Therefore, human security lies at the heart of national security and prosperity - something yet to be appreciated by key stakeholders in our society.