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International Relations Theory and Cyber Security

By: Artin Amirian

National Cyber Security is the latest addition to International relations and strategic warfare studies.
War strategists throughout documented war history have used contemporary technologies to
improve their offense and defense capabilities against their adversaries, but technology has always
been an ancillary provision to complement the classical weapons and “boots on the ground” forces;
Catapults were first utilized to break barriers so the armies and soldiers could walk behind tall walls
of an empire and during WWII communication engineers and code breakers used technology to
collect intelligence against their enemies, but technology has a different role in the domain of
warfare today. Information technology has independently become both an offensive and defensive
weapon.

Right after the Second World War, international relations (IR) theorists used Nuclear Weapon
proliferation as a benchmark theorizing about the behavior of the international system, but the new
kid on the block (cyber weapon) has introduced new sets of dynamics and parameters that will
change the game dramatically. To understand the complex world of international relations it is
imperative to consider the political ramifications and theoretical perspectives that will define how
states will see cyber capability as a weapon of choice for their future conflicts. One may ask why we
need to understand these political theories and International Relations studies. Aren’t we engineers
and IT professionals that our work is to secure networks? I agree, we are IT geeks but the problem
chose to knock on our door.

Cyber security is a synergy between the government and the private sector; no sovereign state
should claim that they can secure their cyber space only utilizing government resource, so yes, as
IT professional we are part of the problem and as a matter of fact we are at the core. It is our
responsibility to understand the effect of our work, we each contribute to the security of this vast
interconnected network of LANs, WANs and MANs and the aggregation of our work may develop a
threat to national security, if we are not aware of the technical and policy implication of our work.

IT professionals are usually associated with technocratic qualities to problem solving but this seems
to be a totally different game we are getting into so dear colleagues the onus is on us to understand
the bigger picture and understand the potential risks that our systems may impose on national
security. Let’s understand cyber warfare capability and its effect on national security from two
dominant theories of IR, Realism and Idealism.

Realism

Realism claims that the offensive Cyber warfare capability of weaker states against the hegemon in
an asymmetric balance of power provides a strong strategic advantage for the weaker (rising
hegemon) state. Realism is a state centric international relations theory that emphasizes the role of
security in international politics. Considering the notion that states are constantly looking for
opportunities to maximize relative power, the realist context of zero-sum gain and “security-

34 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – February 2015 Edition
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