Cyber Power in International Relations

Abstract

Abstract This chapter provides a conceptual and analytical framework for the understanding of ‘cyber power’ in the theory and practice of international relations. Cyber power is the product of relationships between actors, rather than a material quantity that can be possessed and converted into strategic outcomes. This chapter identifies four forms of cyber power that arise from different configurations of state and non-state actors: compulsory, institutional, structural, and productive. Analysis of national cyber strategies shows how states develop, leverage, and exploit their relationships with the actors and structures of the international system to generate cyber power in pursuit of their strategic objectives. Cyber power should therefore be understood as a multiplicity of forms of power in and through cyberspace, not as a singular concept or practice. Moreover, cyber power should be framed within broader conceptualizations of power, rather than treated as somehow distinct and discrete.