Admission requirements
Admission only after intake, please see our website.
Admission only for those who are enrolled in the governance track.
Description
This course examines the global politics of cybersecurity. National politics greatly affects cybersecurity governance, as political decisions decide national cybersecurity strategies and relevant legislation, while the ‘buzzword’ of cybersecurity is regularly deployed by political actors to advance their own projects and agendas. However, the politics of cybersecurity, like internet communications themselves, are also transnational, operating across and beyond state borders. This course therefore examines the global politics of cybersecurity, drawing on international relations and other political theories to put questions of cybersecurity in their appropriate theoretical context. It explores the conceptual underpinnings of common terms like cyber conflict, espionage, and war, and difficulties in empirical measurement, attribution and data collection. It critically examines the growth of international norm initiatives and their future potential, and the emergence of foreign interference through disinformation and social media manipulation. Finally, it expands the global politics of cybersecurity beyond interstate disputes to include alternative interpretations of security, such as those based on human rights, gender and post-colonial perspectives rooted in the global South.
Course objectives
After completing this module successfully, participants will have:
knowledge and understanding of the different theories on international relations and global politics, the implications of cyberspace and the internet for traditional notions such as sovereignty, power, war and conflict, espionage, terrorism and crime, and how key events have led to the current state of affairs;
knowledge and understanding of the political challenges regarding malicious activities in cyberspace such as cybercrime, cyberwar, espionage, etc.
After completing this module successfully, participants will be able to:
apply conceptual knowledge of political theories and technical aspects to specific situations and case-studies;
translate empirical observations of cyber-events into concepts, trends and theories and communicate about these concepts in a clear and concise way;
apply knowledge of the global politics of cybersecurity to practical, policy-orientated questions;
use a sound knowledge base of the global politics of cybersecurity to determine the reliability of reporting on cybersecurity issues and contextualise new developments.
Timetable
7 days from 9.30 until 17.00 in February and March 2021
Mode of instruction
Lectures, seminars, exercises, class discussion
Core lecturer: Dr. James Shires
Assessment method
Assignment (40%)
40% of final grade
Grade must be 5.50 or higher to pass the course
Resit of a fail is possible
Resit will take the same form
Written exam (60%)
60% of final grade
Grade must be 5.50 or higher to pass the course
Resit of a fail is possible
Resit will take the same form
Reading list
Compulsory literature and literature for further consultation will be announced via Brightspace.
Registration
No registration is required for lectures and exams.
Contact
Dr. James Shires Chantal de Groot, study coordinator
Remarks
For more information see our website.