Star Wars, Poison Gas, and Cybersecurity: Lessons from the Past for a Better Future
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Though numerous countries have been victims of hostile operations in cyberspace ranging from espionage of trade secrets to a shutdown of the nation’s electrical grid, little progress has been made in the international system towards a formal international agreement to regulate activities in the domain. Much of the existing literature on arms control in cyber-space is pessimistic and emphasizes why cooperation will fail without communicating how cooperation might succeed. This thesis seeks to fill that gap by examining the question: under what conditions will international agreements in cyberspace be more likely? Assessing two historical case studies in the Reykjavik Summit and the Chemical Weapons Convention for their implications regarding such agreements, this thesis explores the conditions which make an agreement in cyberspace more likely through a lens of five variables - technology, geopolit-ical dynamics, state interests, domestic environments, and information. The most important condition of an international agreement in cyberspace is the willingness of parties to make reciprocal concessions during negotiations. This thesis further finds that the existence of the following conditions increase the likelihood of an agreement: the major players in cyberspace are committed to the objective of an agreement, the use of cyber tools rather than the tools themselves are being regulated, and private sector concerns are included in negotiations. These findings suggest areas of focus for current world leaders seeking to regulate the cyber-space domain. Further, this thesis concludes that cyberspace does not exist in a vacuum and that negotiators on cyberspace have much to learn from historical cases.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | May 2018 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Hirshman, Rachel |
|---|---|
| Primary advisor | Lin, Herbert |
| Advisor | Blacker, Coit |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Center for International Security and Cooperation |
Subjects
| Subject | Center for International Security and Cooperation |
|---|---|
| Subject | Cybersecurity |
| Subject | International agreements |
| Subject | Reykjavik Summit |
| Subject | Chemical Weapons Convention |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Hirshman, Rachel. (2018). Star Wars, Poison Gas, and Cybersecurity: Lessons from the Past for a Better Future. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/zn161xj5689
Collection
Stanford University, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Interschool Honors Program in International Security Studies, Theses
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- Contact
- rdhirshman@gmail.com
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