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The German Cybersecurity Strategy by Comparison: Does Democracy Make a Difference?

  • The question to be answered in this thesis is whether Germany’s democratic system can be shown to affect its cybersecurity strategy (CSS) when comparing it to countries with similar and less democratic governance systems. Therefore, cybersecurity strategies of the United States, Germany and China were compared – one full democracy, one flawed democracy and one autocratic country. Analysed was whether those strategies are defensive or offensive, thus more pacifistic or belligerent. It can be concluded that democracies are pacifistic in a dyadic way in cyberspace. There exist normative constraints for offensive cyber operations and strategies, which do not exist in autocratic countries. A public debate is taking place. Besides, power in democracies is decentralised, and various institutional control mechanisms exist. The industry is independent of the government, and leaders need to be accountable to their people. In addition, there is a difference between full and flawed democracies. There exist more constitutional and normative constraints that hinder the country to conduct offensive cyber operations in the full democracy, Germany. Those constraints are less strong in the US. Institutional and normative democratic deficits seem to increase a country’s offensiveness. Nevertheless, influential might as well be other factors, such as the fact, that the US was for years the world’s superpower and is embedded in a system of allies. China communicates its adherence to active defence, but the cybersecurity frame is used by the CCP to keep itself in power. Therefore, various means like economic espionage or technical information controls mechanisms are used.

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Metadaten
Author:Lola Attenberger
URN:urn:nbn:de:kobv:b721-opus4-34406
DOI:https://doi.org/10.4393/opushwr-3440
Document Type:Master's Thesis
Language:English
Date of first Publication:2020/11/02
Publishing Institution:Hochschulbibliothek HWR Berlin
Granting Institution:Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin
Date of final exam:2020/12/18
Release Date:2022/03/21
Tag:cybersecurity; strategy
Institutes:FB V - Polizei und Sicherheitsmanagement / International Security Management (M.A.)
Open Access Publikationen (DINI-Set):open_access
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - CC BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International