The European Union-United States cybersecurity relationship: a transatlantic functional cooperation

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the European Union (EU)-United States (US) cybersecurity relationship through an international relations perspective focusing on threat perceptions and interests, principles and norms and institutions. It uses data from publicly available EU and US documents and speeches and from three interviews conducted by the author with EU officials. The main argument of this research is that the transatlantic security relationship is not in a process of rift with regard to cybersecurity; cooperation and coordination continues despite the broader political disagreements that arise from time to time. The EU and the US share common threat perceptions and interests, they converge around a number of cybersecurity principles and norms, and they coordinate their actions in practice. In other words, the EU-US cybersecurity relationship has taken the form of a functional cooperation which aims at safeguarding common interests and avoiding the costs and the vulnerabilities that arise from the EU-US interdependencies in the cyber realm. At the same time, not all policy areas related to cybersecurity have been equally prioritised by the two actors.