American Network Deterrence Policy Research

Deterrence is a theory on conflict.During the cold war,deterrence strategy has stopped the break-out of nuclear war.Nowadays since the complexity of cyber threats,variability of cyber conflicts and the militarization of cyberspace,the concepts of deterrence get attention again.Since 2009,as the U.S.government officials and the military calls for strengthening cyber deterrence,American think-tank and academic circles also raise a wave of deterrence research.Although cyber deterrence has aroused the attention of Chinese scholars and policy makers in recent years,there is still a lack a systematic and comprehensive research on U.S.cyber deterrence policy.There are different views about whether cyber deterrence is feasible at home and abroad.Therefore,this thesis tries to make a comprehensive survey of and a system review of U.S.cyber deterrence policy and make a preliminary analysis and evaluation.First of all,this thesis examined the origin and development of cyber deterrence theory,analyzed of the relationship and distinctions between nuclear deterrence and cyber deterrence theory;Secondly,this thesis reviewed the history of the development of U.S.cyber deterrence policy,explored the phased characteristics in this development;Third,the thesis summarizes the feature of U.S.cyber deterrence policy makers and their main issues;Finally,this thesis try to make evaluations and thinking about existing cyber deterrence policies and measures of America.Conclusions of this thesis include the following aspects:(1)America applies deterrence policy into cyber domain mainly because of changes of threats after the end of cold war.The differences between cyber deterrence and nuclear deterrence are low-level conflicts,asymmetry of defense and offense sides,difficult to attribute and difficult to guarantee the effect of cyber deterrence.(2)Cyber deterrence policy is the complement and promotion of cyber defense policy.U.S.cyber deterrence policy has developed during the Clinton era,the bush era and the Obama era,when it developed a retaliatory deterrence policy.From the high-frequency words it uses,we can see the characteristics of deterrence policy in different phases.(3)The cyber deterrence policy is mainly made by the U.S.military,intelligence and judicial department,which is influenced by party politics and political lobbying.For America,the main countries to deter are Russia,China,Iran and North Korea.U.S.cyber deterrence policy doesn’t go out of the existing network security policy.(4)Until now,no significant achievements have been made by U.S.cyber deterrence policy.The high-profile policy has made cyber competitions complicated and conflicts more intense.U.S.cyber deterrence policy neglects the influence of irrational factors in the decision making,and is too confident of its psychological impact on its competitors.cooperation benefits outweigh the competition conflicts between China and U.S.in cyberspace.China should also voices in the world,to clarify its claims in cyberspace.