Why it’s so hard to create norms in cyberspace

[Commentary] The Council on Foreign Relations is launching a new set of Policy Briefs on cybersecurity policy -- it published my contribution. My brief responds to recent suggestions that the US should promote norms to better secure cyberspace. This is a laudable objective. However, my brief uses findings from political science to argue that it will be hard for the US to shape norms without making major changes to other aspects of their policy. Cybersecurity officials, for their part, feel angry at what they perceive as the trashing of norms that are basic and essential to national security. Getting these two sides even to talk to each other is hard. But if the US is seriously committed to building norms in cyberspace, it’s going to have to start thinking about how to do this.

[Henry Farrell is associate professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University]