Game of Cyber Thrones : A Battle for Cyber Governance
By: Shafira Rizki A
Tags: Game of Thrones, Cyber Governance, United States Of America, International Relations, China

Last April, one of HBO’s biggest hit TV series, Game of Thrones (GoT), had reached its end. Even some people were dissatisfied with the ending, still, we could not disregard those astonishing plot twists, don’t you agree?

I better warn you at front that the point of this writing is not about either the story of Game of Thrones series, explaining realism in GoT, or whatsoever. So, if you seek for any article similar to that, you are in the wrong place. This is not about GoT, this is about the Game of Cyber Thrones.

Game of Thrones is a well-played series with a thick sense of realism in international politics. It’s just, other than how the anarchic, self-help international system has brought the 7 kingdoms to fight in a ‘survival-of-the-fittest’ political contestation, it also portrays the possession of “power” as an essential attribute with you win or you die catchprase. Till the last minute, the last battle for the throne (SPOILER) was among the Lannisters, and the Targaeryns (i perceive that the Starks pleaded themselves as an alliance Daenerys Targaeryn under Jon Snow).

The Cyber Governance is somehow analogous with that kind of “Battle for the Thrones” story. Let’s say that cyber realm is an unruly territory, at least, for now. Cyberspace is a (virtual) domain in an anarchic international system. The notion of anarchy leads sovereign states to work to control this kind of territory, which also means controlling all of its greatnesses provided. Despite the free-entry-zone nature of cyber realm, many states are trying to rule the cyberspace. Countries with the most cutting edge technology has tried to build a complex internet system in the contestation of cybersecurity, making another perplexing system that should be abided by all the developed and developing countries. Hence, right now, cyberspace is the most seductive resource of power that each state seeks in its national security strategy.

The main players in the Game of Cyber Thrones

In this 21st century, either you hack (for some people who know how to hack a computer system of course), or you’re hacked, while in the Game of Thrones, either you win or you die.

(definitely one of a well-known quotes in the series even among the international relations scholars)

Imagine that the cyber realm as the land of Westeros. There is an Iron Throne, a symbol of the seven kindoms’ ruler, which the powerful-enough houses compete for it. However, the Iron Throne of cyber realm still in a power vacuum. Several sovereign states are going into the battle of Cyber Throne by developing technological capabilities as well as enhancing its cybersecurity, with the most likely candidates to shape the ideology in cyber governance are two hegemonic states with their own different political ideology; the United States of America, and China. But then, how do we see the US and China as the main players in this Cyber Throne game?

The Five Eyes Alliance

Here, I regard US as the house of Lannisters. (SPOILER) Until the end of the story, the Iron Throne was under the Lannisters, with Cersei Lannister as the queen. She had that power from her late husband, who was poisoned for the sake of the throne. Then, the Lannisters had all the privileges of King’s Landing including all the resources — food and supplies, royal armies, and the access to the global financial system (as well as the support of the Iron Banks). Outside King’s Landing, the Lannisters also had several allies, which among them successfully made a stunning defeat, damaging the other houses’ power. Thus, the Lannisters could maintain its leverage and in check for its power, while keeping their promises, The Lannisters always pays his debts, as a pledge which they’d always used to build their power.

As the one who found the internet, US has the leverage to build the internet system, make it global, and then to be the hegemon of the cyber realm. Even up to the present time, US has the most power and control over the internet domain all around the world, to the extent that right now the US are trying to militarized the cyber domain as one of its national power to utilize it for their own gains. It’s not a question about how affluent US is. Consequently, the US has its way to the global financial regimes, the World Bank and WTO, to support its research and development in technologies, makes it more powerful to build its own cyber power. The leverage as an internet powerhouse gets stronger with the support of its allies in intelligence data mining. The US has a long standing with “internet freedom”, treating the cyber realm as a public sources (a place where a mere free loader can use it). Nevertheless, the US also conducting “mass surveillance”, together with it’s allies, the Five Eyes.

The loyal armies and their ruler

On the other side of the Westeros, Daenarys Targaeryn, the only survivor of the Targaeryns descendant (at the beginning of the story), tried to make her own way to the Iron Throne. She was casted out in another island and did not have anything. Despite all of her conditions, her pride as a Targaeryn made her joining the battle, to bring back the victory of the house of targaeryn. With a different approach in her ruling style, she’d slowly built her army and her kingdom outside the Westeros. She was loved by her people and her armies also were loyal to her. Moreover, she had dragons which what makes her really different in terms of power. She is able to show that she is different and proving the existence of the dragons, which was believed as all those late night fairytales that has been told to the generations of generations. Under those circumstances, Daenarys then became the most formidable opponent for Cersei in the battle for Iron Throne.

Doesn’t it sound familiar?. China has almost similar past story with Daenarys Targaeryn. To bring back its past glory, the China peaceful rises has proved everything. With different approach in development and managing foreign relations in the global politics, China has became a powerful country. Not just because of its economic rise, China also seeks power in terms of security power, trying to have a grasp of its control on the space, and cyberspace. China then became a cyber power state with its own way dominating technology industry. China also has what is called patriot hacker, the nationalist armies fighting in the realm of cyberspace.

Contending Cyberspace

While Lannisters and Targaeryns were the last fighters for the Iron Throne, US and China are competing for the Cyber Throne in the global arena. Not just in the technological research and development, they are also trying to have influence through cyber governance, either in the multilateral forums or bilateral cybersecurity relations. However, with each own different perspective on international politics, both sides often clash with each other.

As I have mentioned before, Cyber Throne is still unoccupied, because the rule of the game should be decided first, so then we can determine terms and condition as to how we win this game, and to think about game strategy that we need so that we can win.

The US and China have their own rules in perceiving how this Game of Cyber Throne will evolve. US has contended cyber realm with its Internet freedom, while China has its Cyber Sovereignty approach in governing cyberspace. Both has different meaning in the terms of norms of behavior in the cyberspace. China regards internet freedom, in addition with US effort to build consensus on the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) in the cyberspace as the way of US to be the internet hegemon so then they could leverage cyberspace to their own gain. Meanwhile US regards cyber sovereignty as an opposition to the basic right of free speech.

Both sides are trying to push the endorsement of each own principle into the international cyber governance. Therefore, reaching an agreement always difficult, and even there is a bilateral agreement, their cybersecurity relations has strained until now. The case of cyber espionage, cyber attacks, and even with the relations between governments and each other’s private sectors also have worsen the bilateral ties between US and China.

Despite who won in the GoT story, there is no intention of this writing to compare who was better, the US as Lannisters or China as Targaeryns. Then again, with the technological development progress and diplomatic efforts that have been made by the two sides in this Game of Cyber Throne, we can say that they are still on their way to go there. Cyber governance is highly contentious and complex. Unless there is an unanimous agreement about the rules of the game, any move still can not be considered as a win or a lose.

It seems that the Cyber Throne will remain unclaimed for a little while longer. Let’s see how the game unfolds further…