A Political History of Cyberspace

Abstract

The political history of cyberspace can reveal much about contemporary and future cyber security challenges. This chapter includes some technological history but, more importantly, it also addresses the political forces and trends that fundamentally shaped the development of cyberspace. In doing so, it provides insight into why cyber security is much more than a technical challenge, and why politics can be simultaneously an obstruction to better global cyber security and also the best hope for it. Observing how political perceptions of cyber security threats have both changed and remained constant over time helps put current approaches into perspective, avoiding the two reductionist arguments that either ‘everything is different now’ or ‘it is the same as it ever was’. Addressing future challenges like the Internet of Things and future remedies like emergent cyber norms require a sound understanding of the past. Essentially, this chapter calls for much more careful and comprehensive engagement with the interrelationship between technological developments and political forces.