The 21st Century Cold War in “Cyberia”

Abstract

What Mark Twain said about the invention of the Printing Press by Gutenberg in the 19th century, may well apply today to the evolution of the Internet. In order to combat this, in 1998, the Russian Federation had first introduced a resolution in the United Nations (UN) First Committee on the threats posed by information and communication technologies (ICT) to International peace and security. Since then the UN has set up six Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) to study the nature of threats in cyberspace-mainly implications of ICT on national security and military affairs, and how to deal with them. Subsequently, in December 2018, the UN General Assembly approved the establishment of two distinct groups, in order to further explore issues related to advancing ‘responsible' state behaviour in cyberspace, namely: an Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) and a new 6th UNGGE.