Denmark’s Offensive Cyber Capabilities: Questionable Assets for Prestige, New Risks of Entrapment

Abstract

In 2019, Denmark declared its military offensive cyber capability operational. This article analyses how this capacity compares to another recent acquisition, the F-35 multirole combat aircraft, in Denmark’s general military security strategy. Snyder’s article, “The Security Dilemma in Alliance Politics”, from 1984 explain why and how the strategic challenge for Danish decision-makers is to minimize the risk of abandonment by the United States while avoiding becoming involuntarily entrapped in U.S. conflicts (Snyder, 1984). Denmark has consciously sought to balance this dilemma since joining NATO in 1949. This article shows that the F-35 acquisition is well suited for this strategy and that the new offensive cyber capacity functions differently, creating new risks of entrapment. While this does not disqualify offensive cyber as a useful Danish military capability, it does imply that decision makers must evaluate offensive cyber on terms other than those of conventional means.