In the last two decades, Israel established itself as a leading actor in the global arena of cyber security governance, strategy, and industry. Transferring knowledge from the military to the... Show moreIn the last two decades, Israel established itself as a leading actor in the global arena of cyber security governance, strategy, and industry. Transferring knowledge from the military to the civilian sphere, the country can today be considered as a normative power for its cyber security policies, research, and innovative market ventures. Thanks to their notorious – yet contentious – operations, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are internationally recognized as pioneers in the field of offensive cyber defense. Different elements contribute to Israel’s national success in cyber security, and this chapter maps them through a critical perspective on the country’s conflation of military strategies with cyber security governance and market initiatives. This problematic merging of different domains creates in fact the conditions for a distinctive – and growlingly exported abroad – profitable approach to the securitization and militarization of cyberspace. Show less
The norm to protect the public core of the internet, originally advocated by the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy, can be operationalised in two ways. Both a layered approach... Show moreThe norm to protect the public core of the internet, originally advocated by the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy, can be operationalised in two ways. Both a layered approach and a functional approach to defining the public core of the internet provide productive ways to discuss safeguarding the functionality and integrity of the core logical and physical infrastructure of the internet from unwarranted state interventions. The article further discusses the tensions between the concept of ‘the public core of the internet’ and those of state sovereignty and national security. It describes two tiers of objection to the protection of the core internet infrastructure and suggests ways to mitigate them. It concludes that even though there are no easy answers to national security in the cyber age, in the long run, reducing ambiguity in cyberspace will benefit all states. Lifting the public core of the internet out of that ambiguity would be a good starting point. Show less