China And ASEAN Cyber Security And Soft Power (1997-)

Chapter 1 Literature reviewIn this literature review, the different terms related to cyber space and cyber security is first introduced in order to gain a better understanding of the discussion in the paper. Secondly, a summary of the different areas of studies will be looked into to understand various approaches to dealing with the subject. The first area is the Information Society; the second area is digital age security and security studies. In effect the paper hopes to achieve a balance between policies making focus as well as develop the theoretical aspect of cyber security studies. Thirdly, in order to explain how cyber security works in the contemporary world, the different IR theoretical perspectives- Constructivism, liberalism and realism are reviewed to explain how countries behave and react to the situation. Constructivism and liberalism have been used to more effectively explain and develop studies on the information age, whilst realism is used in a greater extent to explain the behavior of autocratic states. Upon examining the different theoretical approaches in describing the ICT and security, soft power is further elaborated as the chosen framework to conduct the analysis. The fourth section will describe soft power and how it best describes China and ASEAN's goals and use of the cyber space in collaborations.Chapter 2 Cyber security and soft powerSoft power is a concept describing how a country possesses the attraction be it in terms of policies or actions such that it can get other countries to follow them without coercion or hard payment. Although it seems to be the opposite case with the inevitable issue of cyber security which comes along with ICT cooperation, this chapter aims to show how it is still able to fit into the definition of soft power. Separated into three levels of soft power as defined by Joseph Nye which are military, economic and cultural, we will examine how actors can make apply soft power in the cyber security aspect, ranging from building trust to guaranteeing financial security in economic dependent situations.Chapter 3 China ASEAN ICT developmentIn order to understand the cultural context in which the ICT development has taken place, the period of analysis would be better referred to in historically and leading up till present times. In the first section a focus would be on the tributary system and how it came into being and how it was able to maintain relatively harmonious relations with its neighbors in the region. As for the subsequent ICT involvement, it developed in the past decade with the sections dealing with the nature and analysis of the ICT agreements which were signed by China and ASEAN as well as regional efforts by other regional players to increase cooperation in this field. ICT agreements generally involve economic, development and security aspects of ICT, and there are general as well as state-specific agreements.CHAPTER 4 Impact of China's leadershipThis chapter analyses the effect of the agreement on actual policies and implementation that arise from the high level ICT agreements as well as the individual security efforts of the different countries. First ASEAN countries are evaluated and it is found that the levels of implementation differs from country to country based on national priorities and level of censorship based on internal politics. Data was obtained from a UN report, IMD competitiveness index and Software company data collection reports. Having looked at ASEAN, China was evaluated to examine if it was being a leader in this area, and apart from economic collaboration, there was a remarkable degree of political leadership in allowing. The impact of such agreements has yet to see sustained effort and a greater collaboration in the security aspect which would enlarge to include trans boundary prosecution. On the other hand, the economic collaboration has been carried out with greater effectiveness as all countries stand to benefit from regionalism.Chapter 5 Theoretical discussionThere is sufficient reason for international relation scholars to consider cyber security as a new area of studies just by its great complexity and types of actors. It is also seen that ASEAN's relative success in managing cyber security as well as continuing relations with China in the face of cyber-attack issues, there are lessons that can be learnt, such as packaging economic and security measures together, avoidance of conflict with asymmetrical China, which has been the pattern of engagement since historical times. In order to better understand the gaps that the governments need to fill in order to enable ASEAN to achieve cohesive results that would reflect a regional effort. For that purpose, a metrics showing the different indicators for the three levels of soft power has been created. I have formulated up to five metrics for each aspect which take indicators already present from different surveys in order to avoid double work. This would be another method for the evaluation of the relative soft power in the cyber security arena and would better highlight the aspects which can be improved by state actors.