CFP : Book Project
Cyber Space and International Relations: Theory, Prospects and Challenges
The cyberspace is everywhere – this saying is no longer just a saying, it is an empirical fact. In today´s world, nearly everything is connected to the Internet, not only our computers and mobile phones but also our cars, fridges, and things of everyday use. Furthermore, the world has become more and moreinterconnected through cyberspace – the Internet has made conducting business and communicating easier than it used to be at any other time of human economic activity; it has created new, innovative, and productive branches of business that we do not want to miss today (think about Amazon, Gmail, Facebook, and Hulu for example).
Likewise, cyberspace has not only fostered business around the globe – it has also created the so-called “global village” – the cyberspace connects people and enterprises and helps us to get notified about news from all over the globe in time and to spread all kind of information. Making money and building businesses in our times has become dependent on the interconnectedness made possible by the Internet and the cyberspace. But, the cyberspace has a Janus-faced character: On the onehand, it has created immense opportunities for business, communication, and so on, but on the other hand – due to fact that more and more processes are dependent on the interconnectedness of today’s digital infrastructure – it has also become a serious source of newly emerging threats for national, commercial, and private security.
Although the emergence and ever increasing diffusion of the cyberspace have most obviously significant implications for international politics, global economic activity and transnational social relations, there is still a cloudy spot in research in terms of addressing these implications theoretically and empirically in onecomprehensive and wide-ranging volume. Of course there is a vast number of articles and books on security related issues of the cyberspace (cyber security, cyber warfare, cyber power, and so forth) as well as on the processes and the modalities of what we may call the digital transnationalization of social spaces and relations, but an inclusive volume on the implications of the process of “cyberization” of IR is still missing. Here, “cyberization” of IR refers to the ongoing penetration of all different fields of activity of international relations by different mediums of the cyberspace on the one hand, and the growing dependence of actors in IR on infrastructure, instruments, and means offered by the cyberspace on the other hand.
Because of the evolution of a “cyberization” of IR and due to the ever-increasing relevance of the cyberspace for contemporary international politics and global economic and social activities, there is profound need for political scientists and scholars of IR, to identify, describe, and explain these developments, prospects, and emerging challenges theoretically and empirically in an accurate manner.
Therefore, this book is designed to bring together scholars and scientist as well as experts from cyberspace’s everyday practice, to give elaborated and sophisticated answers and insights into how to cope conceptually, theoretically, and empirically with the relation of cyberspace and international relations. Contributors are asked to present their thoughts related to one of three parts:
I. The Cyberspace and IR – Conceptual andTheoretical Considerations
In this part, authors will present their considerations on how to conceptually and theoretically explain the relationship of the cyberspace and international relations. This goal will be achieved by presenting approaches and frameworks that either deal with the general relation of IR and the cyberspace or develop theoretical approaches to explain the dynamics of this relation in specific fields of activity (like cyber security, cyber warfare, diffusion of information and knowledge through the cyberspace, interconnectedness of economic and social activities through the cyberspace and so forth).
This opening part of the book aims at bringing together conceptual and theoretical papers on the relation of the cyberspace and IR (in terms of actors, spaces, fields of activity and so on), to foster and boost our understanding of theconsequences and implications of the process of “cyberization” for states’ security, power positioning, interest achievement, diplomatic activity amongst others, as well as for economic and civil actors that are likewise affected by the “cyberization“ of IR. Papers answering question like “Which consequences does the cyberspace have for states’ power and national security,” “What are the theoretical implications of the new instruments and means offered by the cyberspace and how to explain their effects on IR”, or “How uncontrolled dissemination of information and new ways of obtaining information change the politics among nations and enterprises” are welcome to contribute to this part of the book.
II. The Cyber Space: Emerging Challenges and Prospects for International Politics, GlobalEconomic Activity and Transnational Social Relations
Part II of the book will bring together contributions that focus on specific empirical fields of activity (security, economy, diplomacy, cultural activity, transnational communication, critical infrastructure, cyber espionage, social media, and more) to address emerging challenges and prospects of the process of “cyberization” of IR. The papers in this part of the book should focus on specific empirical phenomena that make the process of “cyberization” of IR comprehensible and visible, while at the same time addressing the implications of their findings on their field of IR.
III. Outlook: How the Cyber Space has changed (and continuously will change) IR
Finally, the last part of the book is devoted to deliver an outlook on How the Cyberspace has changed (andcontinuously will change) IR, by bringing together the insights of scholars and practitioners on this question. The papers in this part will explicitly deal with the estimation of future developments in a more general way by offering expert prognosis.
If you believe that you might be able to help the project to address one or several questions/topics addressed in the parts I to III, we strongly invite you to participate in the project.
Please feel free to send us abstracts (up to 500 words) as well as complete papers. The deadline for submitting abstracts/chapter proposals is the 15th of July 2012.
When submitting an abstract the editorial team will inform you within three weeks if we would like you to submit a paper, based on your abstract for the book (“does the abstract match with one of the topics of the book”…).
The deadline for draft-chapters will be the 30th of October 2012. Final contributions should not exceed the amount of 10,000 words. Final chapter are due on the 20th of December 2012. The book can be expected to be published in late-spring / early-summer 2013. It will likely be published by Palgrave, Continuum or Springer.
Please send your abstracts to both editors:
Jan-Frederik Kremer
Research Associate and Lecturer, Center for Global Studies, Chair for International Relations, University ofBonn (Germany)
jkremer@uni-bonn.de
Benedikt Müller
IBM Deutschland GmbH
benedikt.mueller@de.ibm.com
Nassef Manabilang Adiong, PhD 
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