The Politics of Cyberspace in Iran: State-society and International Relations ! in the Information Age by Roozbeh Safshekan Esfahani A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Political Science University of Alberta © Roozbeh Safshekan Esfahani, 2018 ABSTRACT Cyberspace is a domain accommodating an unprecedented level of human activity and social relations, with significant implications for domestic politics and international relations. Despite the growing significance of cyberspace in politics, it has received relatively little attention in the scholarly literature, especially with regard to the measures that states are adopting to manage this emerging domain of power. The Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) provides a strong case study for understanding this dynamic, having experienced the full spectrum of opportunities and risks associated with the exercise of power in cyberspace. Using the IRI as a case study, this dissertation asks: what measures has the IRI adopted to manage the risks and opportunities of cyberspace as an emerging domain of power, and how have these measures interacted with Iranian state-society and international relations? This dissertation criticizes the materialist and state-centric concept of power in structural realism as an inadequate analytical tool for examining how power is exercised in cyberspace. In order to suggest an inclusive conceptualization of power, which highlights the significance of ideational factors and non-state actors in the exercise of power in cyberspace, this dissertation draws on the theoretical frameworks of Robert W. Cox and Joseph S. Nye, distinguishing between four major types of power: coercive power; economic power; power embedded in international institutions; and co-optive power generated from ideational sources. The exercise of each type of power in Iranian cyberspace is examined in a separate chapter by using a hybrid methodology suitable for analyzing quantitative and qualitative data collected from online public documents, academic !ii literature on cyberpolitics, semi-structured interviews, raw technical and macro-economic data, and social media data. First, this dissertation identifies the main pillars through which the IRI exercises coercive power in cyberspace at the domestic level, showing how they limit Iranian users’ access to information and compromise their online security. These pillars are the national information network; comprehensive regime of filtering; and restrictive body of law regulating cyber activities and the law enforcement organizations that implement it. The dissertation also examines the IRI’s exercise of coercive power at the global level and identifies the main defensive and offensive cyber measures taken by the IRI to establish deterrence against foreign adversaries. Second, the dissertation examines the measures adopted by the IRI to exploit the significant potential of cyberspace for economic development. Using four main global indexes of information and communication technology development, this study compares the impact of cyberspace on the Iranian economy against the impact on a sample of economies in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Middle East regions. The analysis of these indexes illustrates the IRI has fallen short of meeting the ambitious goals that it has set for itself in its core development documents. Third, the dissertation studies the policies promoted by the IRI to govern cyberspace through international institutions of Internet governance. Analyzing the official documents of six major global forums on Internet governance, the research finds that the IRI agenda is mainly preoccupied with the issues of the digital divide and what it perceives as the negative role of Global North countries and non-state actors in Internet Governance. The analysis shows that !iii overemphasis on these issues led the IRI to ignore the complexity of the emerging regime of global Internet Governance and, consequently, to overlook pervasive issues such as transnational cybercrime. Fourth, this dissertation examines how effectively moderates and principlists, the IRI’s two main political currents, utilize cyberspace to generate the ideational sources of co-optive power. Analyzing the online content generated by the selected moderate and principlist figures and the level of content generation and user engagement they spawn, the research finds that moderates exert strong influence over the generation of ideational sources in Iranian cyberspace. The analysis also finds that principlists have recently made the shift from a reactive to proactive approach to cyberspace and actively engaged in an online competition with moderates over the generation of ideational sources. When it comes to user engagement, however, principlists still lag behind moderates." !iv PREFACE This thesis is an original work by Roozbeh Safshekan Esfahani. A version of chapter five of this thesis has been published as: Safshekan, Roozbeh. "Iran and the Global Politics of Internet Governance." Journal of Cyber Policy 2.2 (2017): 266-84." !v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many individuals helped me during my doctoral studies at the University of Alberta to whom I am deeply indebted. First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Mojtaba Mahdavi, for his knowledge and expertise, without which the completion of this dissertation would have been hardly possible. Throughout my doctoral research, I learned a great deal from him and benefitted tremendously from his guidance and assistance, while always enjoying the liberty he kindly gave me to determine the direction of my research and draw my own conclusions. I owe a great deal to the other members of my supervisory committee, Roger Epp and Thomas Keating, whose invaluable comments and suggestions enormously helped me to refine various aspects of my research agenda and improve the quality of my dissertation. I am also thankful to Zohreh Bayatrizi and Ashley Esarey for their insightful feedback on my doctoral proposal and the earlier drafts of this dissertation. I am very grateful to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for recognizing the value of my doctoral research and awarding me a three-year Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarship. I would also like to thank the interviewees who accepted to participate in this research and generously shared their time with me to answer my questions. I owe a great debt to my parents for their unconditional love and support throughout my whole life and I can not thank them enough for the encouragement and motivation they gave me during my doctoral studies. I will be forever indebted to my loving wife and best friend, Mina Gheiratmand, for giving me all of her kindness and support. It is to her that I dedicate this dissertation." !vi TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 Research Topic 2 Research Background: The Contested Political Implications of Cyberspace 5 Chapter Breakdown 10 CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW 14 Introduction 14 1.1. Background: Second Information Revolution 16 1.2. Cyberspace: Definition and Characteristics 19 1.3. Cyberspace and State-Society Relations 22 1.4. Cyberspace and International Relations 45 Conclusion 70 CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY 73 Introduction 73 2.1 Conceptualization of Power 74 2.2. Research Design 92 Conclusion 100 CHAPTER THREE: IRAN AND THE EXERCISE OF COERCIVE POWER IN 103 CYBERSPACE Introduction 103 3.1. The National Information Network 105 3.2. The Comprehensive Regime of Internet Filtering 115 3.3. The Law and Regulation of Cyber Activities 126 3.4. Iran and the Exercise of Coercive Power at the Global Level 137 Conclusion 149 CHAPTER FOUR: THE DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION AND 151 COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE IRANIAN ECONOMY Introduction 151 4.1. E-readiness Index (ERI) 154 4.2. E-Government Development Index (EGDI) 165 4.3. Networked Readiness Index (NRI) 175 !vii 4.4. ICT Development Index (IDI) 186 Conclusion 194 CHAPTER FIVE: IRAN AND THE GLOBAL POLITICS OF INTERNET 199 GOVERNANCE Introduction 199 5.1. The World Summit on the Information Society: Geneva Phase 201 5.2. The World Summit on the Information Society: Tunisia Phase 209 5.3. The 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12) 218 5.4. The 2013 World Telecommunication/Information and Communication Technology 225 Policy Forum (WTPF) 5.5. Netmundial: The Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet 229 Governance 5.6. WSIS+10: The United Nations General Assembly High-level Meeting of Internet 234 Governance Conclusion 237 CHAPTER SIX: IRAN AND EXERCISE OF CO-OPTIVE POWER IN 243 CYBERSPACE Introduction 243 6.1. Public Figures 250 6.2. Government Officials 269 Conclusion 290 CONCLUSION 293 BIBLIOGRAPHY 311 English Sources 311 Persian Sources 343 APPENDICES 355 Appendix 1: A Sample List of the Cyber Activities Punishable Under the Iranian Laws 355 Appendix 2: The E-readiness Index Data 360 Appendix 3: The E-Government Development Index Data 365 Appendix 4: The Networked Readiness Index Data 371 Appendix 5: The ICT Development Index Data 377 !viii LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: The Country’s entire ICT Budget from 2011 to 2021 (Million Rials) 112 Table 3.2: The NIN budget from 2011 to 2021 (Million Rials) 113 Table 3.3: The Membership of the Working Group 120 Table 3.4: A Sample List of the IRI Senior Officials Using Social Media Websites 122 Table 3.5: The Membership of the Supreme Council for Cyberspace (SCC) 124 Table 4.1: The E-readiness