National cyber power and the inward culture of control

An inward culture of control is cultivated among a significant number of nation states, albeit manifesting itself in various ways. This paper specifically considers the national cyber power abuse aspect, though arguably online and offline are but different dimensions of the same reality. After briefly exploring the concepts of power and culture as relating to forms of national control, the paper turns to several states’ uses of soft and hard power to deliver varying degrees of cyber control specifically. It investigates the main aims (security, ideology, politics and economy), as well as some of the means (indoctrination, web blocking, denial of access, malware attacks, spying, infrastructure control, attacks on exile/cyber dissident-run websites, and violence against/detention of media). In short – a culture of control, albeit stemming from different intentions, and with fluctuating levels, can be seen to materialise across a number of countries, from those with known repressive regimes to surprisingly liberal ones. True Internet freedom is a utopia, or perhaps a historical illusion.