The Necessity and Pitfall of Cybersecurity Capacity Building for Norm Development in Cyberspace

This this paper positions cybersecurity capacity building in the realm of the debate on international norms. It is argued that cybersecurity capacity building on the one side is a necessity to make adherence to discussed norms feasible. On the other side, it can serve as a tool for fostering donor state’s interests in recipient states. The latter can lead to cybersecurity capacity building measures being used to foster geopolitical interests. As a result, rather than advancing the effort to agree on international norms and make adherence possible, it might lead to a fragmentation of norms and different understandings of these norm’s contents.