International Cybersecurity Norms and Responsible Cyber Sovereignty

Abstract

Initially envisioned as a free and open communication space between people, free from state regulation and intervention, cyberspace has become a fundamental subject of national and global politics over the last decade. Allegedly state-sponsored cyber operations against Estonia in 2007, Georgia in 2008 and Iran in 2010 played an important role in turning cybersecurity into a national and international security issue. Although the development of cyber diplomacy and international cybersecurity law were left behind the militarization of cyberspace, nevertheless, there have been many international initiatives to adopt international cybersecurity norms in the past decade. Within the framework of the life cycle model of the norms developed by Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink (1998), this article aims to shed light on the emergence of international cybersecurity norms by focusing on the negotiations held at the First Committee of the United Nations for more than twenty years. The article argues that those negotiations held under the First Committee dealing with disarmament and international security issues indicate the first stage of the formation of international rules related to cyberspace, and the negotiations to be completed under the UN Open-Ended Working Group in 2021 is critical for the transition of international cybersecurity norms from the first to the second stage.