Conceptualising securitisation in the field of cyber security policy
 
 
More details
Hide details
1
Koszalin University of Technology
 
 
Submission date: 2023-05-31
 
 
Final revision date: 2023-11-28
 
 
Acceptance date: 2023-11-29
 
 
Publication date: 2023-12-30
 
 
Corresponding author
Marek Górka   

Koszalin University of Technology
 
 
JoMS 2023;53(4):263-290
 
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Objectives:
This article will attempt to analyse securitisation theory to explore the discursive features of cyber security, using a multi-actor approach that considers the role of state and non-state actors in the creation and management of cyber security discourses.

Material and methods:
The paper aims to assess the contribution of securitization theory to the understanding of both traditional and contemporary security policy issues. More specifically, it is an attempt to reflect on the identification of the challenges facing the modern state.

Results:
Growing dependence on digital technology is inevitable, making the future more threatening than the present. Cyber technology is inherently vulnerable and thus impossible to fully secure. The call for "greater security" becomes justified because the more a country depends on cyber technology, the more inevitable cyber threats become. They are consistently treated by government circles as a security challenge, meaning that the problem is presented as an existential threat, requiring emergency measures and justifying action beyond the normal bounds of political procedure.

Conclusions:
As some conclusion and conclusion, it is worth reiterating observations about the multi-stakeholder nature of cyber security and observations about the co-creation of this security by a wide range of actors representing different and in some cases conflicting interests. It can be argued that there is no single discourse on cyber security or cyber threats, and it is simplistic to assume that there is even a single discourse that represents every securitization actor, be it government or the private sector. This diversity explains why the assumption and logic of securitization theory can only apply to some, but not all, cyber security discourses.

REFERENCES (56)
1.
Armerding, T. (2017). How likely is a ‘digital Pearl Harbor’ attack on critical infrastructure?, https://nakedsecuritv.sophos.c.... Access 12.11.2022.
 
2.
Balzacq T. (2011). A Theory of Securitization: Origins, Core Assumptions, and Variants W: T. Balzacq (ed.). Securitization Theory: How Security Problems Emerge and Dissolve, London, New York: Routledge: 1–30.
 
3.
Balzacq, T. (2005). The three faces of Securitization: Political Agency, Audience and Context, European Journal of International Relations, 11/2: 171-201.
 
4.
Balzacq, T., Léonard, S., Ruzicka, J. (2016). Securitization’ Revisited: Theory and Cases, International Relations: 30/4, s. 495.
 
5.
Beck, U. (1992). Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity, London; Newbury Park, Calif: SAGE Publications Ltd.
 
6.
Beck, U. (2002).The Terrorist Threat: World Risk Society Revisited, Theory, Culture & Society, 19/4: 39-55.
 
7.
Bendrath, R. (2003).The American Cyber-Angst and the Real World – Any Link?, W: R. Latham (ed.), Bombs and Bandwidth: The emerging relationship between information technology and security, New York: The New Press: 49-73.
 
8.
Boer, L. J. M., Lodder, A. R. (2012). Cyberwar: What Law to Apply? And to Whom?, W: R. Leukfeldt, W. Stol (eds.), Cyber Safety: An Introduction, The Hague: Eleven international publishing.
 
9.
Brandt, M. J., Turner-Zwinkels F. M., B. Karapirinler, Van Leeuwen F., Bender M., van Osch Y., Adams B. (2021).The Association Between Threat and Politics Depends on the Type of Threat, the Political Domain, and the Country, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 47/2: 324-343.
 
10.
Bumiller, E., Shanker, T. (2012), Panetta warns of Dire Threat of Cyberattacks on U.S., https://www.nytimes.com/2012/1.... Access12.08.2022.
 
11.
Buzan, B., Wæver, O., de Wilde J. (1998). Security: a new framework for analysis, Lynne Rienner, Boulder, 25.
 
12.
Cavelty, M. D. (2008). Cyber-Security and Threat Politics: US Efforts to Secure the Information Age, CSS Studies in Security and International Relations. London; New York: Routledge.
 
13.
Cavelty, M. D. (2008). Cyber-Security and Threat Politics: US Efforts to Secure the Information Age, London: Routledge, 26.
 
14.
Cavelty, M. D. (2008). Cyber-Terror – Looming Threat or Phantom Menace? The Framing of the US Cyber-Threat Debate, Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 4/1: 19–36.
 
15.
Cavelty, M. D. (2012). The militarization of cyber security as a source of global tension, W: A. Wegner (ed.).
 
16.
Coker, C. (2009). War in an age of risk, Cambridge: Polity: IX.
 
17.
Farwell, J. P., Rohozinski, R. (2001). Stuxnet and the Future of Cyber War, Survival, 53: 23-40.
 
18.
Fierke, K. (2007). Critical approaches to international security, Cambridge: Polity:108.
 
19.
Floyd, R. (2011). Can Securitization Theory Be Used in Normative Analysis? Towards a Just Securitization Theory, Security Dialogue, 42/4–5: 427–439.
 
20.
Gcaza, N., von Solms R., van Vuuren J. (2015), An Ontology for a National Cyber-Security Culture Environment, Proceedings of the Ninth International Symposium on Human Aspects of Information Security & Assurance (HAISA): 1-11.
 
21.
Hansen, L. (2011). The Politics of Securitization and the Muhammad Cartoon Crisis: A Post-Structuralist Perspective, Security Dialogue, 42/4–5: 358.
 
22.
Hansen, L., Nissenbaum, H. (2009). Digital Disaster, Cyber Security, and the Copenhagen School?, International Studies Quarterly, 53/4: 1155-1175.
 
23.
Huysmans, J. (1998). The Question of the Limit: Desecuritisation and the Aesthetics of Horror in Political Realism, Millennium – Journal of International Studies, 27/3: 571.
 
24.
Jackson, N. (2006). International Organizations, Security Dichotomies and the Trafficking of Persons and Narcotics in Post-Soviet Central Asia: A Critique of the Securitization Framework, Security Dialogue, 37:313.
 
25.
Lawson, S. (2001).Beyond cyber-doom: Cyberattack Scenarios and the Evidence of History, http://www.voafanti.com/gate/b... – evidence-history_1.pdf. Access 12.09.2022.
 
26.
Libicki, M. (2009). Cyberdeterrence and Cyberwar, RAND: Santa Monica.
 
27.
Mirow, W. (2016). Strategic Culture, Securitisation, and the Use of Force. Post-9/11 Security Practices of Liberal Democracies, London, NY: Routledge.
 
28.
Mudrinich, E. M. (2012). Cyber 3.0: The department of defense strategy for operating in cyberspace and the attribution problem, Air Force Law Review, 68: 167-206.
 
29.
Munroe, I. (2005). Information Warfare in Business: Strategies of Control and Resistance in the Network Society, London: Routledge.
 
30.
Mutimer, D. (1997). Beyond Strategy: Critical Thinking and the New Security Studies, W: C. A. Snyder (ed.), Contemporary Security Studies, Basingstoke: Macmillan: 90.
 
31.
Nakashima, E. (2012). U.S. Accelerating Cyberweapon Research, The Washington Post, 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/.... Access 12.08.2022.
 
32.
Nicoll, A. (2011). Stuxnet: targeting Iran’s nuclear programme, Strategic Comments, 17: 1-3.
 
33.
OECD. (2021). Guidelines for the Security of Information and Systems and Networks, http://www.oecd.org/internet/i.... Access 04.05.2021.
 
34.
Olsson, Ch. (2015). Interventionism as Practice: On ‘Ordinary Transgressions’ and their Routinization, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 9/4: 429.
 
35.
Peoples, C., Vaughan-Williams N. (2010). Critical Security Studies: An Introduction, London: Routledge, 80.
 
36.
Renan, E. (1996). What Is a Nation?, Trondheim: Tapir Press.
 
37.
Rivera, J., Hare, F. (2014). The deployment of attribution agnostic cyberdefense constructs and internally based cyberthreat countermeasures, W: 6th International Conference On Cyber Conflict (CyCon 2014), 2014 6th International Conference On Cyber Conflict (CyCon 2014).
 
38.
Roe, P. (2004). Securitization and Minority Rights: Conditions of Desecuritization, Security Dialogue, 35/3: 281.
 
39.
Roe, P. (2008). Actor, Audience(s) and Emergency Measures: Securitization and the UK’s Decision to Invade Iraq, Security Dialogue, 39/6: 622.
 
40.
Schutte, S. (2012). Cooperation Beats Deterrence in Cyberwar, Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy, 18/3: 8.
 
41.
Searle, J. (2009). Language and Social Ontology, W: Ch. Mantzavinos (ed.), Philosophy of the Social Sciences: Philosophical Theory and Scientific Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press:19.
 
42.
Shipoli, E. A. (2010). International Securitization: The Case of Kosovo, Saarbrucken: Lambert Academic Publishing, 58–61.
 
43.
Shipoli, E. (2010) International Securitization: The Case of Kosovo, Saarbrucken: Lambert Academic Publishing.
 
44.
Strategic Trends, ETH Zurich CSS, Zurich, http://www.sta.ethz.ch/Strateg... – 2012/The-militarisation-of-cyber-security-as-a-source-of-global-tension. Access 12.07.2022.
 
45.
Stritzel, H. (2007). Towards a Theory of Securitization: Copenhagen and Beyond, European Journal of International Relations, 13/3: 364.
 
46.
Van Munster, R. (2009). Securitizing Immigration: The Politics of Risk in the EU, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2009.
 
47.
Vuori, J. A. (2008). Illocutionary Logic and Strands of Securitization: Applying the Theory of Securitization to the Study of Non-Democratic Political Orders, European Journal of International Relations, 14/1: 69.
 
48.
Wæver, O. (2004). Aberystwyth, Paris, Copenhagen: New Schools in Security Theory and the Origins between Core and Periphery, International Studies Association, Montreal, 13.
 
49.
Wæver, O. (2010). Podsumowanie programu badawczego: rewizje i przekształcenia teorii sekurytyzacji, W: Referat wygłoszony na dorocznym zjeździe International Studies Association , Nowy Orlean, LA , 17–20 lutego 2010.
 
50.
Wæver, O. (2011). Politics, Security, Theory, Security Dialogue, 42/4–5: 465–480.
 
51.
Wæver, O. (2012). Bezpieczeństwo: konceptualna historia stosunków międzynarodowych. Referat wygłoszony na dorocznej konferencji British International Studies Association, London School of Economics and Political Science.
 
52.
Walt, S. (1998). International relations: one world, many theories, Foreign Policy (Special Edition: Frontiers of Knowledge), 110: 34–46.
 
53.
Watson, S. D. (2009). The Securitization of Humanitarian Migration: Digging Moats and Sinking Boats, London: Routledge, 28.
 
54.
Werner, W., Boer, L. J. M. (2017). It Could Probably Just as Well Be Otherwise, Risk and the Regulation of Uncertainty in International Law, M. Ambrus, R. Rayfuse (eds.), Rosemary; W. Werner, Oxford University Press, Oxford: 39-60.
 
55.
Williams, M. C. (2003). Words, Images, Enemies: Securitization and International Politics, International Studies Quarterly, 47/4: 511–531.
 
56.
Zwilling, M., Klien, G., Lesjak, D., Wiechetek, Ł., Cetin, F., Basim, H. N. (2022). Cyber Security Awareness, Knowledge and Behavior: A Comparative Study, Journal of Computer Information Systems, 62/1.
 
eISSN:2391-789X
ISSN:1734-2031
Journals System - logo
Scroll to top