Speaking sovereignty: the EU in the cyber domain. Issue 3 (3rd July 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Barrinha, André; Christou, G.
• Is Part Of: European security. Volume 31:Issue 3(2022)
• Page Start: 356
• Page End: 376
• Publication Date: 2022-07-03
• Subjects: Technological sovereignty -- digital sovereignty -- cybersecurity -- othering -- European Union -- European security; National security -- Europe -- Periodicals; Europe -- Military policy -- Periodicals; Europe -- Politics and government -- 1989- -- Periodicals; 355.03304
• DOI: 10.1080/09662839.2022.2102895
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0966-2839

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The EU's revised Cybersecurity Strategy (2020) has been constructed in the context of increasing geopolitical tension and within a dynamically evolving technological environment. The onset of new technologies has brought with it new opportunities but also perceived risks and threats in cyberspace, to which the EU has sought to elicit a more comprehensive approach underpinned by a move to become more "technologically sovereign". We seek in this article to critically unpack what such claims to technological sovereignty mean for the EU in the cyber domain and what the practical implications are of the EU taking ownership of and performing sovereignty. More specifically, in seeking to conceptually unpack technological sovereignty in its internal and external manifestations, we show how its articulation, legitimisation and operationalisation has implications and consequences for the EU's identity and action in the cyber domain.