The geostrategic stuggle in cyberspace between the United States, China, and Russia

Abstract

Since the early 2000s, geopolitics has been affected by a new domain of human activity cyberspace. In this study we argue that cyber power, constituted by national information technology capabilities, supplements both geopolitical land power and sea power, and has a role equally important as other domains (land, sea, air, and space) in modern military conflict between peer opponents. By this, we intend to prove that the effective use of cyber power is indispensable in the geopolitical struggle between great powers. This struggle is and has always been characterized by the struggle for space. As cyberspace has become an important area for human activity, a nation cannot avoid trying to control and, when necessary, fight for this new, artificial space. Also, the effective control of cyberspace underpins a nation’s control of other spaces. The main holders of international cyber power are the United States, China, and Russia. China and Russia originally started to create their Information Operations capabilities to take advantage of Western vulnerabilities. However, subsequent Chinese and Russian development in the IT sector caused them to be sufficiently vulnerable to loose their asymmetrical advantage in Information Operations and to turn it to a conventional means in the struggle between great powers.