About
Cybersecurity is being reshaped by geopolitical shifts, systemic interdependencies, and rapid technological change, creating uncertainty for the private sector, civil society, academia, and the technical community. In response, the Geneva Dialogue’s 2026 work programme focuses on stress-testing cybersecurity practices and agreed cyber norms in practice, examining how existing frameworks hold up amid fragmentation, emerging technologies, and real-world constraints.
This platform supports that effort as a space for focused discussion and collaborative reading across four thematic cycles:
- Open source security and governance (February – March)
- AI and cybersecurity (April – June)
- Critical infrastructure protection and cyber harm (September – October)
- Private-sector responsibilities in non-war / non-peace contexts (November – December)
For each cycle, curated materials, including opinion pieces, external articles, and selected excerpts from the first two chapters of the Geneva Manual, will be shared to spark discussion, reflect diverse perspectives, and re-examine the Geneva Manual as living guidance through cross-regional expert dialogue.
Context
Over the past decade, states have significantly deepened their engagement with the governance of cyberspace. Milestones such as the 2013 UN GGE consensus report affirming the applicability of international law to cyberspace, the Tallinn Manual’s first edition, and the 2015 UN GGE’s eleven voluntary norms for responsible state behaviour laid the foundation for today’s international cyber stability framework. Since then, both the UN GGE and the OEWG have repeatedly reaffirmed this framework, with the OEWG (2021–2025) issuing successive progress reports emphasising the relevance of international law, the 11 norms, and the importance of confidence-building, capacity-building, and cooperative measures. The set-up of the new single-track permanent mechanism called UN Global Mechanism on developments in the field of ICTs in the context of international security and advancing responsible State behaviour in the use of ICTs (the UN Global Mechanism) cements the relevance of the existing framework and provides a continuous space in which states, as well as other stakeholders, can contribute to its implementation and further improvements.
A central element of this framework is the recognition that cyber stability cannot be ensured by states alone. The multistakeholder nature of cyberspace, where critical infrastructure operators, technology vendors, cybersecurity providers, the open-source community, academia, and civil society all play crucial roles, demands a clearer understanding of how responsibilities are shared. Yet in practice, there is still no common or operational understanding of what these roles and responsibilities should be, particularly in an era of geopolitical fragmentation, accelerating digital interdependence, and intensifying strategic competition.
At the same time, cyber stability itself is increasingly at risk. Geopolitical volatility, rapid technological disruption, and tightly coupled global supply chains are exposing new points of failure. Responsibility for securing digital products, ICT services, and critical infrastructure is now distributed across a wide ecosystem of non-state stakeholders. This raises urgent questions: How are roles shifting in today’s turbulent environment and changing international order? How are different actors adapting to be able to meaningfully implement the agreed rules of the road? Where do weak links and systemic dependencies lie, and what new obligations or opportunities are emerging?
Against this backdrop, the Geneva Dialogue will build on its previous work, but with a reframed focus. Rather than analysing norms as standalone objects, it will examine pressing issues at the intersection of cybersecurity and international politics, integrating the agreed UN norms and CBMs to examine how they add practical value in the changing geopolitical and technological environment. The initiative will continue to clarify the roles and responsibilities of diverse stakeholders, drawing on past work on the security of digital products, the growing geopolitical complexity, and the unique convening power of International Geneva to advance an informed, inclusive, and forward-looking conversation on cyber stability.
Geneva Dialogue on Responsible Behaviour in Cyberspace
The Geneva Dialogue on Responsible Behaviour in Cyberspace (Geneva Dialogue) is an international process established in 2018 to map the roles and responsibilities of non-state stakeholders – the private sector, civil society, academia, and technical community – in contributing to greater security and stability in cyberspace. It is led by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and implemented by DiploFoundation, with the support of the Republic and State of Geneva, C4DT, and UBS. To learn more, visit here.