Abstract

How do international organizations govern cybersecurity? While there is an extensive literature on international organizations and security governance, there is little written about how they manage and adapt existing governance mechanisms to new threats. International security environment has been radically reshaped particularly by the growing number of Internet users, increasing interconnectedness and cybercrime activity. In this light, cybersecurity governance has emerged as a combination of overlapping issues of technical, political, and legal nature, creating a conflict of differing discourses, values, and governance models. While cybersecurity governance literature can be largely divided focusing on either the role of the state or non-state actors, Un has been increasingly highlighting the importance of international organizations, in particular regional organizations, as the contributors of security. This paper addresses the gap in international organization and cyber studies literature by a comparative analysis of global cybersecurity strategies. This paper provides an insight into already existing security governance frameworks relying upon specific mechanisms as mediation, peace operations, disarmament, and collective security for both traditional and contemporary issues. To observe possible differences or similarities in global cybersecurity governance, the paper analyzes further in more detail the security governance mechanisms applied by international organizations in governing technology such as nuclear, conventional, and lethal autonomous weapons. Finally, the paper concludes by highlighting resilience framework, typically applied in security governance of technologies, commonly used by international organizations also to govern such threats of unpredictable nature as those of cyberspace