2010 was the year that removed all doubt that cybersecurity is now a geopolitical problem. We learned from diplomatic cables exposed by WikiLeaks that from Europe to the Middle East to China and beyond, Washington is having an even tougher time than we thought getting what it wants.

The Hindustan Times carried a small news item the other day that, depending on your perspective, is good news or a sign of the apocalypse. It reported that a Nepali telecommunications firm had just started providing third-generation mobile network service, or 3G, at the summit of Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, to “allow thousands of climbers and trekkers who throng the region every year access to high-speed Internet and video calls using their mobile phones.”

Co-author: Andras Simonyi

Budapest, Hungary -- In the run-up to the NATO summit Nov. 19 in Lisbon, the transatlantic community must confront not just the burning issues it faces (from Afghanistan to Russia), but the way free nations can and should wield their power for global progress.

A private telecom firm took high speed Internet facilities to the top of the world on Thursday when it launched Nepal's first 3G services at the base camp of Mount Everest. The installation could help the tens of thousands of mountain climbers and trekkers who visit the Mount Everest region in the Solukhumbu district every year.

U.S. Embassy Kabul has awarded USD 3.1 million to support NATO's "SILK-Afghanistan" program, which provides high-speed Internet access to more than 9,000 students and teachers at Afghan universities in seven provinces (Baghlan, Faryab, Ghazni, Helmand, Kunduz, Paktia and Parvan).

The advent and power of connection technologies -- tools that connect people to vast amounts of information and to one another -- will make the twenty-first century all about surprises. Governments will be caught off-guard when large numbers of their citizens, armed with virtually nothing but cell phones, take part in mini-rebellions that challenge their authority.

Last Tuesday 215,646 Internet users in Iran evaded their regime to visit sites such as Facebook, Twitter and RadioFarda.com, the U.S.-funded Persian-language news service.

The Christian Science Monitor interviewed CPD Director Philip Seib about how the Internet has influenced the rise of social movements such as Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" which has gone global in a short amount of time. Seib notes, "the Internet only amplifies these movements. I would think we’re going to have more and more phenomena that start national and become global."