If the world is going to solve problems of cooperation and conflict in cyberspace, states and non-state actors alike must apply a wider range of tools.  Cyber statecraft will be an important way to discover and implement better set of such tools, writes Jason Healey, Director of the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative.

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Findings of this brief include:

  • Cyber statecraft includes conflict, cooperation and competition in cyberspace and will be a means to discover and implement better concepts and instruments to deal with a new generation of problems. 
  • Some of the levers of cyber statecraft may be new, but many others will be rooted in how states and non-state actors have solved similar challenges in other domains of society and international relations. 
  • Significant progress has been made applying statecraft to cyberspace in the last year. The UK Foreign Minister’s recent call for a discussion on “foreign policy for the Internet” shows it is now a mainstream topic in national security and international affairs.

This issue brief builds on the Cyber Statecraft Initiative’s previous writings including comparative international norms, declaratory policy, response to national security incidents, and the new cyber strategies from the White House, Department of Defense, and NATO.

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