Global affairs facilitated by diplomacy is crucial to enabling states to create relationships and cooperation. Although traditional diplomacy practices still have a critical role, technological developments have offered diplomacy the opportunity to have a new paradigm by being digitalized. As the digital revolution changed all aspects of life, digital diplomacy has also emerged as a new field, following the 21st century's globalization. The key elements of digital diplomacy can be listed as social media platforms, rapid distribution of information, and intense and improved interrelationship and understanding between governments and citizens, globally. Since cyberattacks poses a direct threat on all cyberspace assets including digital diplomacy and use cyberspace as a medium to be globally effective, these threats and crimes should be assessed and prevented through the digital diplomacy between states, non-states, and organizations in complex relationships. This chapter examines cybersecurity, digital diplomacy, and their intersections to discuss these issues.
Top1. Introduction
The growing influence of computer and network security, as well as the continued use of cyberspace by criminal groups such as terrorists, dominated the twenty-first century. The increasing prevalence of cybercrimes can be attributed to the rapid technological advancements of recent years, compelling governments and organizations to formulate strategies to mitigate these risks. This process is commonly referred to as cybersecurity. Having knowledge of various paradigms of cybersecurity is crucial for enhancing the protection of sensitive information and critical infrastructure. Cybersecurity practices are methods utilized for safeguarding data from unauthorized access by malicious actors. Cybersecurity measures serve to protect computers, mobile devices, networks, servers, and data from external threats, which is also known as electronic information security. By acting as a security barrier, cybersecurity ensures that the data and saved information on the devices remain safe and impervious to external attacks. (Perwej, Qamar Abbas, Pratap Dixit, Akhtar & Kumar, 2021).
Cyberthreats and crimes are increasingly prevalent in cyberspace, which poses a significant challenge to national and international security. To mitigate these challenges, organizations and countries must develop complex strategies that address digital and cyberspace security at multiple levels. The concept of cybersecurity has emerged as a response to these threats and has gained importance as a critical factor in global security and international relations due to the continuous advancement of information and communication technologies and the emergence of new threats. The global cybersecurity effort is being attributed to various cyberattacks and cyberwarfare that have occurred and continue to threaten international order. The rise of these threats has compelled countries to devise counter-measure strategies as well as a diplomatic approach that best addresses the threats. Given that cyberthreats have no borders and virtually threaten the global security, it was critical for actors to develop both domestic and international strategies to deal with the threats, giving rise to the concepts of cybersecurity and digital diplomacy. Therefore, the two concepts are very important for politicians, diplomats and, academics who continue to conduct various studies on the two global dominating topics.
The global affairs have been facilitated by diplomacy as a critical tool that enables states to create relationships and cooperation. However, the development of technology has provided opportunities to improve traditional diplomacy to partly being digitalized, although traditional diplomacy is still playing critical role in both bilateral and multilateral arena (Rashica, 2018). Digital revolution changed almost all aspect of life including international relations. Following the globalization and rapid digitalization in 21th century (Asbaş & Erdem Tuzlukaya, 2021), digital diplomacy emerged as one of its key outcomes. This was mainly facilitated by the high advancement of information and communication technologies, the use of the Internet and social media which enabled easy and quick transmission of information that expedites decision-making processes (Rashica, 2018). Emerging of new and modern information and communication technology instruments and tools encouraged to revise traditional diplomacy to a new mode of diplomacy (Cercel & Saftescu, 2015). These new digital diplomacy tools play a complementary role for traditional diplomacy, which can be very effective in international relations. Digital diplomacy utilizes social media platforms to disseminate information, engage a wider and targeted audience, foster interconnectedness, and increase understanding between government officials and citizens (Cercel & Saftescu, 2015).