Cyber security: States, development and intervention

The omnipresence of the Internet has generated momentous personal, organisational and infrastructural dependencies that are not confined by national borders and have created political forces that are inherently transnational. This chapter does not seek to fuel ‘cyber pessimism’ or diminish ‘cyber utopian’ arguments regarding the vices and virtues of Information Communications Technology (ICT), with the Internet the prime example, but to accurately reflect the landscape of cyberspace in the areas of statehood and intervention. This is set within the context of demographic shifts and of societal change with the global economy growing at an average rate of 3.4% per year, a population will expand from 7.4 billion today to more than 9 billion in 2040, and a process of urbanisation that adds a city the size of Shanghai to the world’s urban population every four months.