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The Securitization of Cyberspace

Hjalmarsson, Ola LU (2013) STVK02 20122
Department of Political Science
Abstract
This essay explores how the American Government understands and characterizes cyberspace and its relation to security. Building on the theory of securitization, the essay seeks to understand and describe the speech-acts that the American Government under the Obama Administration engages in in order to securitize the cyber domain and related referent objects. To accomplish this, this essay takes both a conventional approach, using a qualitative-intensive method, and proposes a novel, quantitative-extensive method to analyse the prevalence of securitizing speech acts in a text corpus. The qualitative investigation demonstrates how securitizing actors engage in “hypersecuritization” by constructing an image of a threat capable of utilizing... (More)
This essay explores how the American Government understands and characterizes cyberspace and its relation to security. Building on the theory of securitization, the essay seeks to understand and describe the speech-acts that the American Government under the Obama Administration engages in in order to securitize the cyber domain and related referent objects. To accomplish this, this essay takes both a conventional approach, using a qualitative-intensive method, and proposes a novel, quantitative-extensive method to analyse the prevalence of securitizing speech acts in a text corpus. The qualitative investigation demonstrates how securitizing actors engage in “hypersecuritization” by constructing an image of a threat capable of utilizing the networked nature of cyberspace to create destruction on a level that is comparable to previous disasters such as “Pearl Harbour” and “9/11”. The results from the quantitative investigation support the notion that such speech-acts are representative of a broader tendency within the Department of Defense and the Department of State to engage in speech-acts aimed at presenting cyberspace as a domain filled with threats and in need of securitizing, but fails to provide the level of context that the qualitative investigation achieves. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Hjalmarsson, Ola LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
How the Web Was Won
course
STVK02 20122
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Cyberspace, Securitization, Copenhagen School, Speech-act, Obama Administration
language
English
id
3357990
date added to LUP
2013-02-05 14:32:43
date last changed
2013-02-05 14:32:43
@misc{3357990,
  abstract     = {{This essay explores how the American Government understands and characterizes cyberspace and its relation to security. Building on the theory of securitization, the essay seeks to understand and describe the speech-acts that the American Government under the Obama Administration engages in in order to securitize the cyber domain and related referent objects. To accomplish this, this essay takes both a conventional approach, using a qualitative-intensive method, and proposes a novel, quantitative-extensive method to analyse the prevalence of securitizing speech acts in a text corpus. The qualitative investigation demonstrates how securitizing actors engage in “hypersecuritization” by constructing an image of a threat capable of utilizing the networked nature of cyberspace to create destruction on a level that is comparable to previous disasters such as “Pearl Harbour” and “9/11”. The results from the quantitative investigation support the notion that such speech-acts are representative of a broader tendency within the Department of Defense and the Department of State to engage in speech-acts aimed at presenting cyberspace as a domain filled with threats and in need of securitizing, but fails to provide the level of context that the qualitative investigation achieves.}},
  author       = {{Hjalmarsson, Ola}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Securitization of Cyberspace}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}