Cyberspace and World Politics – Modern Diplomacy

Politics in the world today relates to purely technical rather than purely political issues. In recent years, cyberspace issues, including cybersecurity, internet freedom, and governance, have quickly become “politicized” and become a natural global public issue.

Important signs of the politicization of the cyber world are the inclusion of cybersecurity on the scenario agenda as well as the spread of the US policy on internet freedom and the promotion of the IT public domain theory.

The reason cyberspace can quickly politicize the world is closely related to its intrinsic relevance to internet security and the threats posed by politicians and the media in relation to an active US promotion to maintain hegemony.

While it is very difficult to politicize technical problems, countries can significantly reduce the negative effects of the politicization of cyberspace by increasing contacts, building consensus, comparing and learning from experiences in dealing with similar problems, and containing undue media threats .

In recent years, the international community has seen three major global public problems emerge: the financial crisis, climate change, and cyberspace.

Among these, the subject of cyberspace is particularly fascinating as it is a new problem that has quickly appeared on the international political agenda. Compared to the financial crisis and the problems of climate change, cybersecurity is still in its infancy. It is often compared to the Wild West – that is, the lack of international orientation and laws that have not yet established a global consensus base and a firmly established international consultation system.

Cyberspace is characterized by the use of electronic technologies. It stores, modifies and exchanges data and information about interconnected network systems and physical devices. It is a multi-dimensional artificial virtual world that is managed, accessed and generated by computers and that is connected to the existing world, creating a multiverse system in which we are here, but also with the possibility of virtual omnipresence there can go.

Cyberspace can be divided into two types: technical problems and non-technical problems. Non-technical issues are the central research topics of international political scientists. They mainly cover three main issues: network security, the freedom of the internet and its governance as mentioned above.

In relation to cybersecurity, scientists have had a number of discussions about cyberspace in terms of the cybersecurity paradox. Paradoxical insofar as there can be no security, according to the old adage: “Every law has a loophole”: See also the phenomenon of hacking against the Lazio region and the topic of the developers of security software, of which they can copy too much sell high prices to those interested in cracking it for outcomes other than the “trivial” monetary gains. Other security issues include cyber warfare and cyber deterrence.

Internet freedom is a foreign policy weapon that the United States has vigorously promoted in recent years, and Internet public domain theory is an important theoretical foundation for strengthening this concept of international relations.

Research in this area focuses on the global public freedom of cyberspace and on the contradiction between internet freedom and cybersecurity.

With the increase in cybersecurity problems and the implementation of US internet freedom policy, the risks of cyberspace have gradually become a serious obstacle to mutual trust and normal exchanges between countries.

For this reason, internet governance, including measures to ensure network security and responding to cybercrime problems, has become an important topic for international political scientists as well.

The problem of cyberspace is an emerging global public problem. Research on such topics, especially theoretical analysis, is still growing rapidly, but development is lagging behind. Taking network security as an example, people have different interpretations of the connotation of the concept of network security and often use it interchangeably with terms such as computer security, network security, and information security.

Although various cyber insecurity issues are frequently mentioned in official documents, the media and IT, surprisingly few security research papers explain the combination of security and IT clearly. What does that mean?

It is still very appropriate to use the summary of Johan Eriksson’s 2006 Security Impact Analysis of the Information Revolution to assess computer security research today: “Most research is unreliable and the focus is on security issues related to information technology. Most of the IT literature is policy-oriented and rarely relates to international relations theory or any other discipline.

Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, few scientists are concerned with the reason why cyberspace can become politicized in the world quickly. In other words, cyberspace is first a technical issue, followed by a domestic political issue, and finally an international political issue.

Global public issues are diverse, but not all can become explicit international political issues. The word politicization has two meanings: one is the process of being given a political nature and the other is the result of acquiring a political nature. In domestic politics, politicization is often seen as a continuum of individual political awareness-raising and participation.

Cyberspace is a series of interconnected computing devices that can store, use, and communicate information. It has four layers: people, information, logical modules, and physical devices. In terms of use or purpose, cyberspace can be used to manipulate, process and develop data and information and to promote and improve communication between people and the interaction between people and information.

On the one hand, in contrast to the four natural spaces – terrestrial, marine, atmospheric and “sublunar” – cyberspace is a space created entirely by human hands, and the digital and the virtual are its important characteristics. On the other hand, in contrast to the four natural spaces, cyberspace is increasingly showing signs of neopolitics.

Specifically, the global politicization of cyberspace manifests itself in cybersecurity, which is quickly becoming part of everyday life.

An essential expression of the politicization of the subject is that it has become the subject of international negotiations and that the relevant international organizations are gradually becoming interested in the problem.

Since the new century, cybersecurity has become a major issue for the United Nations. The United Nations has adopted a number of resolutions to raise awareness and cooperation among the international community on cybersecurity threats.

General Assembly resolution 55/63 of January 22, 2001 suggests that countries should ensure that their laws and practices can eliminate safe havens for those illegally abusing information technology. Investigations should pursue international cases of illegal information technology abuse. Therefore, the countries concerned should cooperate in coordinating law enforcement agencies. In the fight against illegal misuse of information technology, countries should share information on the most serious problems. General Assembly resolution 60/45 of January 6, 2006 calls on the UN Secretary-General to appoint an intergovernmental group of experts to continue research on possible cooperation on potential information security threats and calls on the group to submit a report.

Although these resolutions and recommendations are far from the standards of an international convention on information security, they mean that information security issues – as an emerging problem – receive global attention.

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