Author: Muharem Rusiti
Julien Tromeur from Unsplash
Since Mark Zuckerberg announced late last year that the parent company of Facebook would be rebranded as Meta in order to better reflect its forthcoming major focus on the so-called “metaverse”, this term surged in popularity and is now everywhere.
The idea of the metaverse, which experts believe will play a central role in the next stage of the evolution of the internet defined by techies as the Web 3.0 or Web3, is in fact increasingly spurring not only public interest but also huge investments.
What is the metaverse, anyway? Well, presently it is more of a technological concept which is still evolving and is in its developmental phase rather than a wholly established realm. While the metaverse is still in its evolutionary stage, there is a consensus that a combination of technologies – including augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), which jointly integrated translate into extended reality (XR) – assisted by artificial intelligence (AI) will be laying its foundation for a digital universe or facsimile of the real world. In this digital universe, individuals will be able to dive in and interact with one another in a fully immersive three-dimensional virtual environment that highly mimics reality.
In other words, the metaverse is a second plane of existence where the digital and physical spheres converge and where users could do almost anything they can do in the real world. It resembles a highly lifelike but virtual experience, accessible through a console, computer or mobile device linked to an ultrafast internet connection and a kit made of some wearables like a VR-headset, motion-sensing controllers and other such gears.
It is therefore self-evident that, although the metaverse is still at nascent stage, when fully realized it will inevitably not only reshape human interactions and activities as we know them today but also strongly impact the world of international affairs in different ways.
So, let’s now explore the implications it might have for the domain of international relations, including some of the main opportunities it may create and some of the challenges it might pose.
First, the advent of the metaverse could transition the world towards an era of metaverse diplomacy or metadiplomacy, where governments and other subjects will increasingly conduct diplomacy, relationship building, and other activities through this new virtual landscape. Through fully immersive environments, diplomats from all around the world may in fact gather and debate or negotiate face-to-virtual-face without the limitations of space and time and meet in a more real-feeling experience in the blink of an eye. Especially in urgent cases or during international crises, when there is need for an immediate assembly and response, metadiplomacy can be utilized for instances when deliberations must quickly take place.
Furthermore, states could also establish and expand their diplomatic presence in this digital ecosphere. Barbados has already established its online diplomatic residence, becoming the first sovereign country with an embassy in Decentraland, an online virtual world. In the future, states will be able to conduct different multilateral, bilateral, cultural or other diplomatic activities in the metaverse, but also offer consular services potentially accessible to users from anywhere, at much lower operational costs.
Yet the metaverse, as already mentioned, is also likely to pose some major challenges and create some potential issues, raising thus some central questions for those studying and practicing diplomacy and international affairs.
One of the main baffling issues is that as of today, it is unfortunately not fully clear yet if there will be a centralized and truly global metaverse accessible to anyone around the world. There is a possibility that it could result in a more fragmented scenario, where there will only be distinctive digital environments developed by different actors and destined to distinctive users, perhaps based on their geographical location.
Different nations and tech giants might in fact be tempted to look at this new technology through the lens of sovereignty and competitiveness and see it as a means of promoting or safeguarding their specific interests primarily. They would thus be more prone to develop their own exclusive metaverse(s), which they may fully control in terms of content, governance and regulation, rather than work for the creation of a global virtual realm. Consequently, this raises two fundamental questions: who is actually going to control and administer the metaverse(s) and how will its use and functioning be regulated?
Understandably, there is no immediate answer to these questions and solving such issues will be no easy task, as it will require goodwill, collaboration, and agreement between multiple actors. Ideally speaking, tech companies, corporations, international organizations, and states should work all together in developing the regulatory architecture of the metaverse. At least they should make possible a centralized global metaverse, should there ever be one – and create the set of rules and legal frameworks needed for its functioning and concurrently define its governance structure.
Therefore, considering all of the above, in conclusion it must be said that, if they want to stay relevant in the new era, states and international organizations should not lag behind the tech sector and sense the potential presented by the metaverse and exploit the opportunities it may offer. They can begin by investing for example in the planning, creation and establishment of different virtual diplomatic and consular presences that will complement more traditional ambassadorial activities.
At the same time, governments and policymakers should get involved in the governance processes and play an active role in designing the necessary legal frameworks and regulatory structures of the metaverse already in its early phases of development and define the set of rules indispensable for its compliance and operability. It would be beneficial to begin at the national level by outlining data collection and privacy policies and/or financial activity guidelines among other matters, and clarifying for instance things such as if accords signed in the virtual realm will be applicable to the physical plane and vice versa.
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