A matrix based integrated framework for multi disciplinary exploration of cyber-international relations

Abstract

Cyberspace is the most pervasive and rapidly adopted communication media and the most disruptive until date. It is now indispensable for almost every facet of modern society and touches, practically, everyone by providing a powerful platform for interaction and innovation. Given the widespread availability of tools to operate in this environment, a growing array of actors are trying to benefit as they seek to control critical decision points in the real world and cyberspace. It is imperative to understand what cyberspace "is made of' - over and above the Internet and answer the question "who gets what, when, and how?" The intent of this research initiative is to contribute to the generation, management and sharing of knowledge to enhance understandings of the emerging area of cyber-international relations as a complex, flexible and adaptive domain of interactions. The first contribution of this thesis is the development of a multi-dimensional Cyber System for Strategic Decisions (CSSD) framework. This framework enables a holistic identification of the elements of a system, which are structured as set of nested and hierarchical relationships. It facilitated in mapping the entities that comprise different domains of cyberspace and the dependencies within and across those entities. The second contribution of this thesis is the development of the foundations for an internally consistent and articulate representation of cyber-international relations in terms of actors- individuals and group of individuals, layers of the Internet and the context of cyber engagement that form the basis of the CSSD framework. This approach can be applied to diverse domains to build scenarios and model different facets of both the real world and cyberspace according to the practical needs. The instruments and intensity of engagement and the extent of time of engagement are the two dependencies that map the interactions among the different entities. The third contribution of this thesis is the development of a robust, comprehensive, and coherent test use-case based on "Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)" domain. The CSSD framework is then adapted to test its applicability to the use-case. IPR has been selected as the test use-case because it provided both the legal understanding and legislative efforts at international level, in as collaborative, effective and uniform manner as possible, to protect the rights of intellectual property owners and to avoid future conflicts.