Power technology and powerful technologies: Global governmentality and security in the cyberspace

Abstract

While escaping consistent theoretization so far, the impact of 'cyberization' on the conduct of international relations can be more thoroughly grasped by studying the reconfiguration of global governance techniques brought about by the virtual mediums. The cyberspace remains a highly contested arena for policy-making, and its current institutional architecture is dominated by a multiplicity of tensions over who is entitled to decide on issues that go beyond the traditional functions of the state and what practices of governing are most appropriate in this context. By applying the Foucauldian concept of governmentality to investigate the global discourses of security in the cyberspace, this chapter sheds light on a shift in the rationality of governing, and brings empirical evidence of the dominant discourse(s) of security in the cyberspace in the United Nations (UN) ambit. It reveals that, despite the common acknowledgement of cyber dangers as imminent, transnational and very diffuse, an inclusive and dialectical approach to cybersecurity is not yet in place.