Needed but Unachievable? Possibilities and Limits of Cooperative Security in Cyberspace

CROSSING-PI Prof. Christian Reuter is part of the third event in the digital dicussion series “Cyberwarfare – Cyberpeacebuilding: On a Search for a Cooperative Security Architecture Cyberspace” of the Evangelische Akademie Loccum.

Abstract

Cyberspace is increasingly marked by a digital arms race. The number of states that run active military cyber programs has grown in recent years. Cyber-attacks and digital disinformation campaigns have become more sophisticated and numerous. Considering these developments, international efforts to regulate the digital domain aiming for de-escalation and stabilization are lacking behind. Since cyber conflicts are inherently transnational and cross-border phenomena, it is difficult to envision long-term mitigation without some degree of international cooperation. But although the UNGGE recommendations of 2015 and several other high-ranking initiatives working on cyber norms have provided in recent years a solid framework for future cooperative efforts, an international arrangement that would at least rudimentarily resemble an arms control agreement is nowhere at sight in the cyber domain. The purpose of this workshop session is to elaborate on the limits and the potentials of a future cooperative security architecture in the digital domain with a particular focus on the lack of political will.

Discussion speakers:

• Elena CHERNENKO, Special Correspondent for Cybersecurity, Non-Proliferation and Arms Control, Kommersant Newspaper and Board Member of the Council on Foreign and Defense Relations and the Council of the PIR-Center, Moscow
• Regine GRIENBERGER, Ambassador for Cyber Foreign Policy, German Foreign Office, Berlin
• Christopher PAINTER, President, Global Forum on Cyber Expertise, Member of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace, and Associate Fellow at Chatham House and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), Washington D.C.
• Christian REUTER, Professor for Computer Science, Technical University of Darmstadt and Head of PEASEC (Science and Technology for Peace and Security), Darmstadt

Further information and registration

Event website