Reading Materials
- UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/64/211 (March 2010)
The resolution calls for the Creation of a global culture of cybersecurity and taking stock of national efforts to protect critical information infrastructures - Cyber Norm Emergence at the United Nations – An Analysis of the UN‘s Activities Regarding Cyber Security
Tim Maurer, Discussion Paper 2011-11, Cambridge, Mass.: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School, September 2011.
Generally, two principal streams of negotiations regarding cyber-security can be distinguished at the United Nations: a politico-military stream focusing on cyber-warfare and an economic stream focusing on cyber-crime. I highlight the various signs that norms to govern cyberspace are slowly emerging and moving towards norm cascade. At the same time, I show that this process is dynamic. Using the model of a norm life cycle developed by political scientists Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink my research was therefore guided by the following questions: What exactly have norm entrepreneurs, UN member states and UN organizations, been doing with regard to cyber-security and why was there this variance in activity over time?" - Cultivating International Cyber Norms
Prof. Martha Finnemore's chapter in the Center for a New American Strategy's very helpful and incisive America's Cyber Future: Security and Prosperity in the Information Age, edited by Kristin Lord and Travis Sharp. In the chapter, Prof. Finnemore draws upon her studies of the emergence of some international norms to reflect upon and project possible patterns of diffusion, contestation, modification and acceptance of cyber norms. - 10 Rules of Behavior for Cyber Security
Dr. Eneken Tikk's article elucidates norms of cyber conduct for states and other stakeholders. The practice of these norms, based on international law, custom and common sense would reduce the prevalent uncertainty and insecurities. - Cyberspace, the New Frontier -- and the Same Old Multilateralism
Dr. Panayotis (Pano) Yannakogeorgos article traces efforts and resistance to them over the past decade to establish ICANN governance of the Internet as a global norm. The essay as a chapter in S. Reich's Global Norms, American Sponsorship and the Emerging Patterns of World Politics (Palgrave, 2011) extends to cyberspace an argument about the needed conditions to establish a global norm in today and tomorrow's world. - International Strategy for Cyberspace
The United States International Strategy for Cyberspace (May, 2011) calls for the development of cyber norms based on principles of international security, economic and social development and openness. - A letter to the UN General Assembly, Sept. 12, 2011, from China, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan
The letter proposed an international code of conduct for information security and deliberations within the UN framework to reach consensus on international norms. It also called for a greater UN role in governance and arbitration of conflict in cyberspace. - Russian draft for a convention on cyber
Like the above proposal, a Russian draft for a convention on cyber, presented to an international meeting on information security from Sept. 22 to 24, 2011, focuses on provisions to reduce information flows that could produce social unrest or other destabilization in countries. While both this draft and the Sept. 12 letter express a decade long concern of their authors with regard to cyber, they also appear more immediately a response to the roles of social media and the Internet in recent Middle East events. - A Treaty for Cyberspace
Rex Hughes' article examines the role that a cyber-warfare treaty or "Treaty for Cyberspace" could play in limiting the adverse human effects of interstate conflict in cyberspace. If the next war will indeed be waged in cyberspace, then what, if anything, should international society do to govern or regulate this domain? In an attempt to bring greater attention to the growing interdependencies between cyber-warfare and international affairs, this article proposes that a multilateral regime is needed to govern cyber-warfare at the global level.
On the view that securing cyberspace is a global challenge – one that cannot be solved by a single company or country -- the EastWest Institute launched the Worldwide Cybersecurity Initiative in 2009. This initiative has brought together government and corporate partners to share concepts and discuss strategies for protecting the world's digital infrastructures. The following report on some of these activities.
- Russian-U.S. Track Two Bilateral on Critical Infrastructure Protection: Working Towards Rules for Governing Cyber Conflict: Rendering the Geneva and Hague Conventions in Cyberspace
- This is a 50-page report with five recommendations, which addresses protecting critical humanitarian infrastructure
- Multi-lateral implementation of the recommendations is now underway
URL: http://www.ewi.info/working-towards-rules-governing-cyber-conflict - China-U.S. Track Two Bilateral on Cybersecurity: Fighting Spam to Build Trust
- 75-page report with two recommendations and 46 voluntary best practices
- Now being implemented by the international Message Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG)
- Outreach to India, Russia, etc.
URL: http://www.ewi.info/fighting-spam-build-trust - Russia-U.S. Track Two Bilateral on Cybersecurity: Critical Terminology Foundations
- 20 consensus terms defined (e.g., cyber space, cyber critical infrastructure, cyber conflict, cyber attack)
- Now being extended as multi-lateral effort with next 20 terms being defined
URL: http://www.ewi.info/cybersecurity-terminology-foundations
Back to top