This course focuses on the interrelationship between digital technologies, their development, their use and misuse by human actors on the one hand and enduring negotiation processes between the state and its bureaucracies, society, and the private sector to develop solution on the other.
Learning objective
The aim of the course is to foster an understanding about how digital technologies are related to the realm of politics and how different actors (the state, but also non-state actors) react to the challenges emerging in the digital age with different governance approaches.
Content
How to approach cyber insecurity politically continues to be a difficult issue for states. The willingness to use disruptive cyber tools in the context of great power rivalry has increased. Further digitalization of society comes with clear benefits, but also with new challenges. The dynamic interaction between technological vulnerabilities and the possibilities of their misuse creates a problem space with little stability. In this course, we look at the threat environment, national and international counter strategies, and the possible future of this problem field. We understand cybersecurity politics as emerging from the interplay between digital technologies, their development, their use and misuse by human actors in conflictual economic, social and political contexts - and by enduring negotiation processes between the state and its bureaucracies, society, and the private sector in order to identify roles and responsibilities.
