Emerging technologies and cybersecurity: Can governance adapt to speed, scale, and uncertainty?
2026 Geneva Dialogue Masterclass #2
Date: 4 May 2026, Time: 14:00–16:00 CEST
Location: Online
Cyber stability faces growing pressure from geopolitical fragmentation, rapid technological change, and interconnected digital supply chains. Emerging technologies — AI, advanced automation, and quantum computing — are accelerating cyber capabilities, reshaping how vulnerabilities are discovered, defences are built, and operations conducted. Some compress decision timelines; others challenge foundational assumptions about encryption and systemic risk. As capabilities evolve, responsibilities across developers, deployers, infrastructure operators, and states become harder to delineate, and existing governance frameworks struggle to keep pace.
In 2026, the Geneva Dialogue stress-tests cybersecurity practices and agreed cyber norms under real-world conditions, bringing together policymakers, the private sector, technical communities, and civil society through a scenario-based engagement framework.
This masterclass is part of a series under the 2026 Geneva Dialogue work programme to stress-test cyber norms. It aims to establish a shared analytical baseline: how technological acceleration is reshaping capabilities and redistributing risk — and where existing governance approaches may fall short under conditions of systemic transformation.
It follows the first masterclass in the series, Shared Code, Shared Risk: How Are Security Responsibilities Allocated?, which examined security responsibilities in open-source software supply chains.
The session requires registration.
Its findings will directly inform the third chapter of the Geneva Manual on Responsible Behaviour in Cyberspace.
About Geneva Dialogue:
The Geneva Dialogue on Responsible Behaviour in Cyberspace is an international multistakeholder process examining how agreed cyber norms and confidence-building measures (CBMs) are implemented in practice by non-state stakeholders. Established in 2018 by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and implemented by DiploFoundation with the support of key partners, it brings together experts from the private sector, academia, civil society, and technical communities.
The Geneva Dialogue is designed to surface practical insights, trade-offs, and constraints in the implementation of agreed cyber norms and CBMs across different stakeholder communities. Its objective is to document practical roles, responsibilities, and points of friction in the implementation of cyber norms, and to translate these insights into concrete guidance through the Geneva Manual. The Manual currently comprises two chapters, covering supply chain security and responsible vulnerability reporting, and the implementation of cyber norms and CBMs related to the protection of critical infrastructure.
In 2026, the Geneva Dialogue focuses on stress-testing cyber norms and cybersecurity practices under real-world pressure, examining how they perform amid geopolitical tension, technological acceleration, and systemic interdependence. The outcomes will inform the next chapter of the Geneva Manual, grounded in operational and policy realities.
