ABSTRACT
Building on the individual contributions to the book, this concluding chapter highlights four key debates that together encapsulate the complexities and paradoxes of the current thinking about the future of cyber security politics from a Western perspective. The first section asks how much political influence states can achieve via cyber operations and what context factors condition the (limited) strategic utility of such operations. A second section discusses the role of emerging digital technologies in cyber security politics and notes how the dynamics of the tech innovation process reinforce the fragmentation of the governance space around them. A third section asks how states attempt to uphold stability in cyberspace, and in their strategic relations more general, highlighting three interconnected challenges – escalation, deterrence, and intelligence – of this interactive quest. A fourth and final section focuses on the shared responsibility of state, economy, and society for cyber security and calls attention to the continuing renegotiation processes about their respective roles in an increasingly trans-sectoral and transnational governance space.
