THE SECRETARY OF STATE
WASHINGTON

FEB 6-2018
The Honorable
Edward R. Royce, Chairman
Committee on Foreign Affairs
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Mr. Chairman:
Cyberspace policy affects almost every aspect of modern American life and it is a critical foreign
policy imperative. With increasing incidents of disruptive global cyber attacks, including some
sponsored by nation states, and the emergence of the digital economy dependent on internet
connectivity, U.S. international leadership in this area will be important in the years to come.
The Department of State must be organized to lead diplomatic efforts related to all aspects of
cyberspace.
Over the last several months, we have engaged employees within relevant Department of State
offices, invited the input of our partners across the federal interagency, and met with leading
cyber experts and practitioners outside of the government to ensure that the Department's
structure and policies would be well-informed and prepared for future technology challenges.
The enclosed proposal will cohesively unify the Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues and
the Bureau of Economic Affairs' Office of International Communications and
Information Policy.
The combination of these offices in a new Bureau for Cyberspace and the Digital Economy will
align existing resources under a single Department of State official to formulate and coordinate a
strategic approach necessary to address current and emerging cyber security and digital
economic challenges. The proposal will elevate the stature of the Department official leading
cyberspace policy to one that is confirmed by the U.S. Senate - an Assistant Secretary-to lead
high-level diplomatic engagements around the world.
The Assistant Secretary will report to the Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and
the Environment. This placement in the Department's structure will ensure close coordination
with the other bureaus that report to the Under Secretary and focus on functional policy issues
while closely coordinating with the private sector. It will also give the Department the most
effective platform from which to engage relevant global stakeholders.
The Department recognizes the keen interest of Members of Congress in cyberspace diplomacy
and welcomes your input on, and support for, this proposal. As the Department proceeds with
planning for this proposal, we will provide the requisite advance congressional notification of
related reprogrammings consistent with applicable provisions of the State Department Basic

 Authorities Act of 1956 and the annual Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related
Programs Appropriations Act. Please let my staff or me know if you would like to discuss this
proposal.
Sincerely,

~l.'>-1~
Rex W. Tillerson
Enclosure:
As stated.

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 Primary Lines of Effort:
• Establish a global deterrence framework in which participating States make a
political commitment to work together to impose consequences on States that engage
in malicious cyber activities, based on participating States' shared understanding of
what constitutes responsible State behavior in cyberspace.
• Develop and execute key adversary specific strategies to impose costs and alter
calculus of decision-makers
• Advise and coordinate external responses to national-security-level cyber
incidents
•

I

• Promote adoption of national processes and programs that enable foreign territorial
cyber, threat detection, prevention, and response
• Build foreign capacity to protect the glob~I network thereby enabling like-minded
participation in deterrence framework
• Maintain open and interoperable character of the Internet with multi-stakeholder
governance, instead of centralized government control
Cyberspace and Digital Economy Proposal

2 .

 Primary Lines of Effort (continued):
• Promote an international regulatory environment for technology investments and
the Internet that benefits U.S. economic and national security interests
• Promote cross-border flow of data and combat international initiatives which seek
to impose restrictive localization or privacy requirements on U.S. businesses.
• Protect the integrity of U.S. and internaUonal telecommunications infrastructure
from foreign-based threats. Serve as the USG interagency coordinator for
international engagement. (Note: OHS and DoD lead on domestic-based threats.)
I

• Secure radio frequency spectrum for U.S. businesses and national security needs
• Facilitate the exercise of human rights, including freedom of speech and
religion, through the Internet
• Build capacity of U.S. diplomatic officials to engage on these issues

Cyberspace and Digital Economy Proposal

3

 Efficiencies:
• Strategic planning sets priorities for international engagements
•· Cohesively unifies cyber security and digital economic policy development and
implementation under a single chain of command
• Experts are shared, where possible, between cyber security and digital policy
• Cyber and digital economy efforts coordinated with regional bureau strategic plans
• CT continues primary lead on combatting terrorists' use of the Internet
• DRL has primary responsibility for implementing Internet freedom programming
• Coordination with INL on· capacity building
• Deploy FSOs as expanded workforce for routine engagements

Cyberspace and Digital Economy Proposal

4