Bordering the State in Cyberspace - Daniel Lambach

Bordering the State in Cyberspace 

Guest Lecture at DFH-Workshop "Logiken der Un/Ordnung von Border Complexities / Logiques de des/ordres des Border Complexities" in Frankfurt (Oder), 18.-19.03.2021 (Part of the project: Border Complexities. Eine deutsch-französisch-luxemburgische Workshopreihe)

Lecturer: PhD Dr. Daniel Lambach 
Moderator: Dr. Peter Ulrich 

Abstract: Cyberspace is not the ‘electronic frontier’ but an integral part of a hybridizing digital/physical lifeworld. And with the digital transformation reshaping societies and economies, states are adapting too. States seek to create cyber analogies of territory to ward against potential threats and to undergird narratives of sovereignty. They have developed rules of jurisdiction over cyber activities, designate virtual territories that have to be defended against cyberwar, and deploy symbols of statehood to communicate their authority claims. Inspired by the notion of ‘bordering practices’, this presentation develops the concept of ‘territorial practices’ as a technique of governance.
Territorial practices consist of the reification and inscrip- tion of spaces, boundary-drawing, and exerting control. This is illustrated with examples from global internet governance, ‘digital sovereignty’ narratives, and policies for the protection of critical infrastructures in Germany and other countries.

Lecturer: Daniel Lambach is a DFG-funded Heisenberg Fellow at the Research Centre Normative Orders at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Germany. He obtained his PhD in Political Science from the University of Cologne, Germany. His recent publications include ‘“It’s The End Of The World As We Know It”: World Politics in a Postgovernance World’ (with Matthias Hofferberth) in /Global Governance/ (2020) and ‘The Territorialization of Cyber- space’ in /International Studies Review /(2020).