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Rebecca Turner
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Year 3 Student - 2021 intake - Cohort 3 My academic profile to date consists of a BA in History and an MA in International Relations. In keeping with my interests in politics and international affairs, my research will focus on the role of the private sector in cyberspace. This will likely include evaluating the private sector’s engagement in active cyber operations - both offensive and defensive - as well as emerging responsibilities in international cyber diplomacy and norm-making. Taking a risk-based approach, I am particularly interested in looking at the implications of the private sector’s increasing agency in cyber statecraft for the UK, with an aim to inform policy and national risk assessment exercises. I also intend to delve into some of the more theoretical postulations and debates that have arisen in IR around the private sector’s role in geopolitical affairs and what this means for Westphalian sovereignty and the state-centric system. |
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PhD Project |
The Private Sector in Cyberspace: Threats and Risks to International (In)Security The private sector owns over 90% of cyberspace, giving tech firms unprecedented power in geopolitical affairs traditionally confined to the agenda of state actors. Cases in point are Microsoft opening a United Nations (UN) Affairs Office, Facebook proposing a ‘global digital currency’, ‘geopolitics’ being Apple’s most common theme in 2022 company filings, and Big Tech playing a significant role in the Russia-Ukraine war. The increasing, and arguably inevitable, presence of the private sector in IS has created a complex relationship between the state and non-state actors, whereby a blurring of responsibilities in cyberspace has complicated the public-private interactions required to tackle IS challenges. Crucially, the national interests of the state have to be balanced against the business imperatives of market-driven, ethically ambiguous, largely unregulated private corporations. The question this thesis seeks to problematise and evaluate is: What are the threats and risks of the private sector’s cyber agency for International Security? The approach will be qualitative and policy-driven, with an aim to inform methodologies for national risk assessment exercises as well as regulations for the private sector in cyberspace. Supervisor: Professor David Galbreath (Bath) |
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PhD Poster |
