Public-private partnerships on cyber security

A Practice of Loyalty

Bibliographic Data

ID3737802
AuthorsKristoffer Kjærgaard Christensen (Department of Social Sciences), Karen Lund Petersen (0000-0002-2399-1551, Department of Social Sciences)
Year2017
Volume93
Issue6
Pages1435-1452
Publication date2017-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-5850 • E-ISSN: 1468-2346
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/ia/iix189
OpenAlexW2766055781
LanguageEN
Citations received24

The governance of cyber-security risks is seen as increasingly important to the security of the nation. However, cyber-security risks are characterized by a fundamental uncertainty, which poses a great challenge to their governance and calls for new modes of organizing security politics. Public–private partnerships (PPPs) are often seen as the answer to this challenge by enhancing flexibility and robustness through knowledge-sharing. Engaging with the literature on PPPs and the Danish practice on cyber security, we show how PPPs involve controversies over different threat realities of cyber security. This plays out as controversies over what is considered threatened, the scope of the issue and the kind of expertise to be mobilized. Arguing that PPPs on security are not defined narrowly by short-sighted strategic self-interest but also loyalty and commitment, we suggest that the innovative potential of such PPPs lie not in a possible consensus on a common purpose and threat reality, but in the ability to embrace divergent definitions and approaches to cyber security. Acknowledging the corporate interests and loyalty, we suggest a move towards the notion of partnering through dissent.

Business · Computer security · Internet privacy · Loyalty · Political science · Private security · Public relations · Public security · Computer Science · Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies · Marketing · Public Administration