The geopolitics of cyberspace and the European Union’s changing identity

ABSTRACT Cyberspace has brought significant technological innovations and benefits, but also new legal and political challenges. It created a ‘new geography’, where traditional physical borders co-exist with virtual space, posing novel security threats that complement conventional understandings of security. The resulting ‘cyberspace geopolitics’ comprises multiple actors that are increasingly in competition and conflict with each other. This article explores the implications of these developments for the European Union (EU) and its changing approach to the governance of this human-made Global Space. It argues that the approach that the EU has taken in recent years positions it in the direction of a more traditional geopolitical player. This means that the EU faces the challenge of upholding the promotion of norms, in line with its normative identity, while developing coercive mechanisms able to deal with geopolitical threats.