Analyst Angle: RIM faces bans, trapped between competing security imperatives : But banning BlackBerry may not be an easy call for most nation-states

It is no small irony that the very feature that has made Research In Motion the darling of the enterprise – its security architecture – has now become the company’s biggest headache as it seeks to expand its footprint in high-growth emerging markets.
The BlackBerry maker finds itself trapped between competing, and equally legitimate, security imperatives – of the sovereign nation-state on the one hand and the enterprise on the other, not to mention the individual’s right to privacy.
Several countries the Middle East and Asia, citing national security concerns, are seeking access to the encrypted data stream that is generated by, and flows between, BlackBerry devices. Saudi Arabia has ordered its mobile operators to halt BlackBerry services like messenger, web browsing and e-mail from today. UAE has threatened a similar curb from Oct. 11.
Some other countries, like India, for instance, that have voiced similar concerns, are currently evaluating the situation and reportedly mulling similar curbs. And, as the case of Indonesia and subsequently Lebanon suggests, there is an even chance that other states, emboldened by the action of their peers, may join the clamor for access to BlackBerry’s encrypted data streams.
Posturing aside, this may not be as easy a call for most nation-states as it has been imagined. Not that a sovereign nation-state cannot, or will not, do it.
Situating the controversy
Predictably, the developments have sent the media and the blog universe into a heated overdrive. At about 11 a.m. today, a Google search for “RIM, security, ban” returned 1.53 million entries posted since Aug. 1. Sadly, the giant echo chamber that is the Internet has generated more heat than light.
To get a better handle on the controversy, it might be useful to situate it in what might be its appropriate context – the ongoing transformation of the world economy, the rise of the Internet and the growing “informatization” of global business. Or as a recent Wall Street Journal headline summed up the views of RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis, “It’s the Web, deal with it.”
Properly understood, and at least in an abstract sense, this is not really a RIM issue, notwithstanding what endless media reports and articles with “RIM banned …” in their headlines might suggest.
Rather, it is a specific instance of the inherent, and historic, tension between the nation-state and global capital that is being played out against a backdrop of increasing globalization of the production-distribution-consumption chain.
Sure, the manner in which the issues are resolved will impact RIM’s future as a company. But it would be useful to remember that RIM is merely an exemplar – a good one, for sure, but still only an exemplar in that it could easily have been another company.
RIM is a good exemplar because it is the best in the messaging class and offers the strongest enterprise security suite; nation-states clamoring for access to the BlackBerry’s encrypted data must believe that if they can impose their will on RIM, the rest of the players would automatically fall in line.
Key questions
The key theoretical question at the heart of the current controversy is a simple one: How should we balance the legitimate security imperatives of the corporation (and the individual’s right to privacy) vis-