France's Macron releases an international pact on cyber warfare and security principles that over 50 nations have signed, but not the US, Australia, or China
French President Emmanuel Macron released a international agreement on cybersecurity principles Monday as part of the Paris Peace Forum.
Context & Ripple Effects
The pact is Macron converting a year of tech diplomacy into a rules framework: after meeting Nadella, Zuckerberg, and other big-tech chiefs in May over investment and tax, he now launches a set of cybersecurity principles at his own Paris Peace Forum, with more than 50 nations signing on.
The notable absences are the US, China, and Australia — meaning the world's largest cyber powers sit outside the framework at launch. The US refusal holds through the Trump years until Washington reverses course in 2021, joining the same partnership alongside 80 countries and companies like Google and Microsoft.
First-order effects
- More than 50 nations are immediately bound to a common statement of cybersecurity principles, but the framework launches without the US, China, or Australia — leaving its three biggest potential enforcers on the sidelines.
Second-order effects
- The US abstention forces the pact to build legitimacy through companies and mid-sized states instead — a gap that persists for three years until the US joins the expanded partnership in 2021, validating the French-led structure it initially declined.
Third-order effects
- The episode establishes a template Macron repeats across his tenure: Europe writing digital rules first and absorbing US friction later, from the French digital tax standoff resolved by deal to the DSA probes he says are slowed by US pressure — rule-setting as an assertion of strategic autonomy rather than consensus-first diplomacy.
The trend: Digital governance is increasingly initiated by European middle powers who set norms first and wait out great-power abstentions, with the US alternating between staying out and joining late.