Cyber power
By: by Joseph S. Nye, Jr
Contributors: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Publisher: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 28
Subjects: Internet -- Political aspects; Power (Social sciences); Balance of power; Elements of national power
Description: Power depends upon context, and the rapid growth of cyber space is an important new context in world politics. The low price of entry, anonymity, and asymmetries in vulnerability means that smaller actors have more capacity to exercise hard and soft power in cyberspace than in many more traditional domains of world politics. Changes in information have always had an important impact on power, but the cyber domain is both a new and a volatile manmade environment. The characteristics of cyberspace reduce some of the power differentials among actors, and thus provide a good example of the diffusion of power that typifies global politics in this century. The largest powers are unlikely to be able to dominate this domain as much as they have others like sea or air. But cyberspace also illustrates the point that diffusion of power does not mean equality of power or the replacement of governments as the most powerful actors in world politics.
Notes: "May 2010".

Includes bibliographical references (p. 20-23).

Mode of access: Internet from Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs web site. Adobe Acrobat Reader required.
Table of contents: title: Information and power diffusion; title: Power; title: Cyber power; title: Actors and their relative power resources; title: Google and China; title: Governments and governance; title: Conclusion.