The fourth industrial revolution enabled humankind to introduce unimaginable changes through various state-of-the-art technology such as artificial intelligence, robots, internet of things (IOT), and big data. Above all, the equipment based on scientific technology which was previously operated through a human hand, is now able to achieve its objective beyond human capacity through self-understanding and judgment. As a result, the fourth industrial revolution brought down the walls between cyberspace and physical space and brought about hyper-connected society in which objects link with space, and the hyper-intellectual society in which the artificial intelligence is linked with big data. In international politics, this idea of the fourth industrial revolution is mainly discussed in the global economy of finance and market and the military domain where a new weapons system and a new type of conflict are expected to emerge in the future through technological innovation. The reality is that unlike the interest in how the fourth industrial revolution affects the economy, military, and cyberspace, the revolution is rarely discussed in the area of foreign policy.

Different from the reality in South Korea, due to the limitations that the transnational threats in cyberspace cannot solely be dealt in terms of technology, the Global Conference on CyberSpace 2017 adopted cyber diplomacy as one of the four main sections – “Cyber4Diplomacy” to be exact. The interest in cyber diplomacy kicked off from the concern that the key global challenges that are establishing networks draw countries to redesign its foreign relations. International organizations and think-tanks and leaders of the industry and policy-makers began to highlight diplomacy that resolves issues occurring in cyberspace.

Volume 2019-4

Publication Date: February 28, 2019

122 pages, paperback