Industrial policy and governments’ cybersecurity capacity: a tale of two developments?

ABSTRACT

Are industrial policies having an impact on countries’ cybersecurity capacity across the globe? When analysing the securitisation of countries’ cyberspace, the empirical assessment of industrial policies is still rather unexplored. In parallel, scholars in the field of development have already raised their concerns regarding the risk for developing countries falling further behind vis-à-vis developed countries as a consequence of the disruptive dynamics brought forth by new technologies. Still, empirical studies that contrast the dynamics that new technologies are posing among developed and developing countries are rather scant. This paper looks to contribute to the empirical literature by assessing the role of industrial policy in cyber-related challenges through a cross-country OLS estimation model. Results show that industrial policies are having a significant impact across countries’ cyber capacities and that, moreover, there is an interactive relationship between countries’ cybersecurity capacities and R&D efforts once development values are controlled.

KEYWORDS:

• Industrial policy
• cybersecurity
• development
• national security

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Walid Tijerina

Dr Walid Tijerina is Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León in Mexico. He obtained his PhD in Politics at the University of York, UK. He was a Visiting Researcher at the University of Texas at Austin's LLILAS Benson Centre in 2016. His book Industrial Development in Mexico: Policy Transformation from Below was published in Routledge's Studies in Latin American Development.