Fordham University DigitalResearch@Fordham Senior Theses International Studies Spring 5-16-2020 Hacking Nation-State Relationships: Exploiting the Vulnerability of the Liberal International Order Ray Marie Tischio Follow this and additional works at: https://fordham.bepress.com/international_senior Part of the International and Area Studies Commons Hacking Nation-State Relationships: Exploiting the Vulnerability of the Liberal International Order Ray Marie Tischio
[email protected] International Studies: Global Affairs Track Fordham University Class of 2020 Thesis Advisor: Christopher Toulouse
[email protected] Seminar Advisor: Dotan Leshem
[email protected] ABSTRACT This thesis explores the implications of nation-state cyberwarfare and cyber conflict in the context of geopolitics and international studies. The emergence of nation-state cyber conflict has increased in frequency and severity in the last decade. In order to investigate what renders cyberwarfare a new and unique challenge to specific geopolitical climates and international systems at large, research on state-level cyber conflict within bilateral relationships—all of which cyber activity is significantly prevalent—is presented in the following three case studies: US- China, US-Iran, and US-Russia. Findings of these three case studies are used in subsequent analysis to articulate the specific ways in which state cyber conflict differs from conventional state kinetic warfare. Finally, after characterizing cyber conflict and the new challenges it presents to geopolitics, these defining qualities are situated into the current debate surrounding the deterioration of the liberal international order. I conclude that nation-state cyberwarfare exploits the postwar interconnected transparency of liberalism, and fundamentally challenges the continuity of US hegemony and the liberal order.