Concepts of International Relations applied to cyberspace: sovereignty, war and diplomacy in the digitized age

Abstract

The proliferation of ICTs (information and communication technologies) into every field of activity in modern societies has heightened the role of information in today’s world politics. In this context cybersecurity is increasingly being regarded as a key national security issue, as techniques generated from the malicious use of cyberspace have the potential to disruption critical infrastructure as well as to disclose confidential information. In the past decade, the optimization of techniques for anonymization and for the use of proxies have managed to shift the attitude of States and non-States actors towards a more strategic approach to cyberspace, which has now become the field for asymmetric confrontation and low-scale warfare. As policy makers perceive the approaching of a 'cyber conflict', the international system is likely to be affected by the 'digital substrate' which undermines older distinctions between international and domestic, and between States and non-States actors. The thesis will explore this process by analysing how some traditional concepts of IR are transformed in cyberspace and what are the unprecedented challenges that they face in that environment. Four concepts will be examined: sovereignty, power, war and diplomacy. The chapter on sovereignty will look at how some of its constituent features such as exclusivity of jurisdiction and absence of external interference are affected in cyberspace. The issue of cyber espionage is highlighted, as its scale and impact is being growingly perceived as a threat to national security. The chapter on power will display the ways through which a State can project its power into cyberspace and the asymmetries in distribution of power in favour of non-State actors. The chapter on war will consider the conflictual literature on the topic of ‘cyber war’ and the likelihood of it to happen. It will also analyse whether episodes of cyberattacks can be labelled as acts of ‘cyber war’, and whether those could constitute a motive for the use of force between States and between States and non-State actors according to international law, following particularly the UN Charter. Finally, the chapter on diplomacy will explain the debate over internet governance, focusing on the divergent Western/Eastern perspective on the regulation of cyberspace and on the setting of shared behaviour-based norms. It will then concentrate on regional cooperation on cybersecurity bringing the European Strategy for Cybersecurity as a case study for confidence-building and resilience-building effort at international level. In the first part a practical and non-technical introduction to the existing threats and actors involved in cyberspacace will be presented. Particular attention will be given to the case study on the European Strategy for Cybersecurity. This is due to the research work done within the European Parliament as a trainee in the Directorate-General for Innovation and Technology (ITEC) in Brussels, where thanks to the precious collaboration of the Director General and of the traineeship’s supervisor the idea for the thesis was conceived and developed.