This chapter examines US cyber security policy in light of transnational cyber security, deterrence theory, and hegemonic stability theory. Recent work on US cyber security policy has argued for or against deterrence theory as a basis for US cyber security policy. Deterrence theory, as a state level theory of national security, focuses attention on strategic choice enabling policymakers to manage state level responses to perceived threats. The problem is that the Internet is a transnational medium and, increasingly, an important global medium for economic exchange, being treated as a duty free zone under WTO agreements. Thinking about cyber security at the level of the state elides threats to the Internet as a global commercial medium. Framing cyber security as a transnational security issue may assist in developing a comprehensive US cyber security policy that incorporates deterrence and US leadership. The role of the US in the global economic order is to provide leadership ensuring stability necessary or economic and information exchange to occur. From the standpoint of transnational security, the US should fulfill its role as leader of collective hegemony, by leading cyber space stakeholders to develop norms and rules for global cyber security governance regimes and institutions that will teach states the norms and rules necessary for a stable and secure cyber domain through which global information and economic exchange will continue to flourish.
Patrolling near the contested Islands of Senkaku/Diaoyu in the East Asian Sea on 8 September 2010, a Japanese Coast Guard crew detained the captain of a Chinese fishing boat whose crew was plying their trade near the Islands claimed as Japanese territory. The waters around these contested islands contain rich fishing grounds in addition to potentially large deposits of oil and natural gas. The fishing boat captain was taken to Japan. Meanwhile, the Chinese government vehemently protested, and, ultimately, the fishing boat captain was returned to China, 16 days later on, 24 September 2010. During the 16-day diplomatic imbroglio between China and Japan and, it would appear, as part of an effort to increase pressure on Japan to release the Chinese fishing boat captain from custody, the government of China, on 10 September 2010, ceased rare earth metals exports to Japan. This action led to substantial distress within the tight knit circles of Japanese government and business elites owing to Japan's absolute dependency on rare earth imports from China to feed its production of high technology products on which its economic model is based. In effect, China, in combination with other forms of diplomatic pressure, used rare earths as a bludgeon to forcibly coerce Japan into aligning its policy with Chinese interests or suffer economic hardship. The use of rare earths by China in this manner was made possible by the fact that China presently controls 95 percent of global rare earth production, Japan relies on China to supply 80 percent of its rare earths consumption, and that Japan has no readily available natural endowment of rare earths or substitutes.
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