As Wikileaks continues to wreak havoc across the globe, it is becoming increasingly clear that the rules of the game have changed. Or to put it more precisely, the game has changed. Thus, one should take a moment to reflect upon what Cablegate has told us about the world, and ourselves.
Firstly, it seems that the world has entered its first global “cyberwar.” As should be, the rules are muddled, the sides unclear, and even the term itself is at best ill-adapted to define what is going on. But something definitely is. After some local skirmishes, like the Estonia-Russia spat of 2007, during which Estonian government websites suffered from denial of service attacks, this fight is intercontinental. Wikileaks continues to be targeted by various aggressions, most of which presumably originate from the US government. And the fight is dirty. The nature of some to suspect that the US government is using an immense zombie or bot network (a mass of “infected” private computers, that can be used to overload websites), an illegal practice more commonly associated with hackers.
Wikileaks was prepared. It successfully “hopped” from country to country, and aptly used such tools as twitter to let people know where to find the data. Thus, the US next targeted Wikileaks’ wallet, by supposedly pressuring major companies offering online payment services, including Paypal, Visa and Mastercard, into denying service for people wishing to donate to the whistleblower (Julian Assange, the public face of Wikileaks, also saw his Swiss bank account frozen). This led such people as Jeff Jarvis, an American journalism professor, to complain that it was possible to donate to the Ku Klux Klan, but not Wikileaks. That was too much for online freedom fighters, who mounted “Operation Payback,” successfully taking down the Mastercard website.
What the leaks have shown about today’s America, however, is far more worrying than the information the secret documents contain, particularly in what regards the attitude towards freedom of the press and free speech. Sarah Palin, a potential Republican presidential candidate, has compared Assange and Wikileaks to Al-Quaeda, and said that Assange should be hunted down like a terrorist. Mitch McConnell, US Senator and Republican bigwig, declared that Assange “needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and if that becomes a problem, we need to change the law.” This attitude has even been emulated by the prestigious Columbia University, which sent out an email telling students that attempting to access or spread leaked documents could seriously endanger future employment perspectives. The administration later backpedaled, calling the email a “test” for students.
The reaction in Europe is much more muted than the hysteria taking place on the other side of the Atlantic. But the leaks are also revelatory. Unfortunately, the biggest thing they reveal is that we are all just big gossips. Name-calling of politicians and the patronizing attitude of many American diplomats have captured headlines, while much more serious issues (like the information about the deployment of American nuclear missiles in European countries or the fact that arm-twisting by American diplomats in Spain snatched a lucrative government contract away from the UK’s Rolls Royce in favor of the American General Electric), are somewhat glossed over.
While the more cynical attitude towards politics has spared Europeans from any great shocks, the leaks nevertheless provide a fascinating insight into the functioning of regional diplomacy. One of the more relevant pieces of information for Ukraine concerns the so-called “Sikorski Doctrine” (in reference to the Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski). According to a cable from 2008 by Victor Ashe, US ambassador to Warsaw, Poland believed that Russia will pose a threat to its security within a decade or so, but, after the 2008 war with Georgia, it now it feared that “it could be as little as 10-15 months.” Consequently, the cable continued, Poland was attempting to create a buffer zone, and “the Eastern Partnership and other Polish policies in the region aim to counter a resurgent Russia.”
It is interesting to note that while Poland has been rhetorically (and factually) mending fences with Russia it has actually been building up a position of strength for a future potential engagement. This is best done by fixing Poland firmly within the EU, both in terms of image and the number of officials taking high posts in EU institutions, thus ensuring that the EU does not turn its back in a moment of crisis. For once in its history it appears that Poland is using logic, not just bravura. But beyond this lies a deeper truth about how to deal with Russia — with strength, craftiness, and positive rhetoric, but also by building one’s own base. This is a lesson Ukraine should take to heart. It seems that Wikileaks has a lesson for everyone.
