Cybersecurity and Internet Governance: Two Competing Fields?

Abstract

The challenge of managing complexity (actors and themes) has posed crucial questions as to how the Internet "should," "can," "ought" to be organized. With that being so, this thesis aims to understand the gap between Internet governance and cybersecurity. While the former often focuses on diffuse and inclusive mechanisms to administer internet's functions, the latter concentrates on the role of the State, security and defense measures. The purpose of this work is not to see cybersecurity and internet governance through “either/or” lenses, rather it focuses on understanding the gap in-between both; provoking further reflections on how to bridge them. With these questions in mind, I argue that the gap is produced through discursive and non-discursive practices and that the dissociation between both is best seen through the relationship between national security and cyberspace — identified as a process of structuring threats — and the intended and unintended consequences that result from this combination.

Keywords: Cybersecurity, Internet Governance, National Security, Multistakeholderism, Structuration Theory, Securitization