Back to the Future? : Planning for uncertainty. A call for bridging the security and development communities

Abstract

We currently see a foreign policy environment that is becoming more complex and volatile. Cyber is now established as a frequently used tool in foreign policy. Its disruptive qualities are concerning in terms of its implications on contemporary established economic and political structures. Cyber capabilities are cheap, accessible, omnipresent, and the domain from which it operates, namely that of cyberspace, is an inherent unregulated space. The concept of the security dilemma has resurged into cyberspace, and actors on a national and international level, are currently engaged in a digital arms race. Cyber capacity building was created as a tool by the cybercommunity to mitigate some of these challenges. Due to the impact that ICTs have on a societal scale, its implementation into a development context is inescapable. Nevertheless, the development community has been hesitant to implement security issues in its literature and is thus failing to engage on security-related matters sufficiently. One of the problems is the existence of silo mentalities. Hindering academic cross-pollination is limiting both communities in terms of creating mutually beneficial policies, which is a relatively stable foreign policy environment—described as an environment where sustainable political solutions can take root.