Cyber Persistence Theory: Redefining National Security in Cyberspace(Bridging the Gap)

A bold re-conceptualization of the fundamentals driving behavior and dynamics in cyberspace. Most cyber operations and campaigns fall short of activities that states would regard as armed conflict. In Cyber Persistence Theory, Michael P. Fischerkeller, Emily O. Goldman, and Richard J. Harknett argue that a failure to understand this strategic competitive space has led many states to misapply the logic and strategies of coercion and conflict to this environment and, thus, suffer strategic loss as a result. The authors show how the paradigm of deterrence theory can neither explain nor manage the preponderance of state cyber activity. They present a new theory that illuminates the exploitive, rather than coercive, dynamics of cyber competition and an analytical framework that can serve as the basis for new strategies of persistence. Drawing on their policy experience, they offer a new set of prescriptions to guide policymakers toward a more stable, secure cyberspace.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Foreword by General Paul Nakasone Chapter 1: The Misapplied Nexus of Theory and Policy Chapter 2: The Structure of Strategic Environments Chapter 3: Cyber Behavior and Dynamics Chapter 4: Theory and the Empirical Record Chapter 5: Cyber Stability Chapter 6: The Cyber Aligned Nexus of Theory and Policy Chapter 7: United States Case Study Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Michael Fischerkeller is a research staff member in the Information, Technology and Systems Division at the Institute for Defense Analyses, a Federally Funded Research and Development Center. Michael has spent his entire professional career supporting the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Combatant and Multi-National Force commanders, and the Intelligence Community. His areas of expertise are cyber strategy, strategic / operational concept development, and analysis / assessment. Emily O. Goldman serves as a strategist at US Cyber Command and a thought leader on cyber policy. She was cyber advisor to the Director of Policy Planning at the Department of State, 2018-19. From 2014 to 2018, she directed the US Cyber Command / National Security Agency Combined Action Group, reporting to a four-star commander and leading a team that wrote the 2018 US Cyber Command vision, Achieve and Maintain Cyberspace Superiority. She has also worked as a strategic communications advisor for US Central Command and for the Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the State Department. She holds a doctorate in Political Science from Stanford University and was a Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Davis, for two decades. Dr. Goldman has published and lectured widely on strategy, cybersecurity, arms control, military history and innovation, and organizational change. Richard J. Harknett is Professor and Director of the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Cincinnati. He also co-directs the Ohio Cyber Range Institute, a state-wide organization supporting education, workforce, economic, and research development in cybersecurity. He served as Scholar-in-Residence at US Cyber Command and National Security Agency and has held two Fulbright Professor positions.

Review :
Cyber Persistence Theory is an important addition to our collective understanding of the dynamics of cyberspace and its implications for national security. It provides sound insight and excellent analysis on how we can meet the challenges of cyber in the hyper-connected, digitally driven world we find ourselves in today. Excellent work on a topic of increasing importance to all! This timely new book is destined to go down as a major milestone in the development of new strategic thought for twenty-first century. With admirable clarity and powerful prose, the authors first dismantle the deterrence-focused paradigm that has so far guided US defense strategy in cyber space and then formulate a new organizing concept. Anyone interested in cyber security must come to terms with this new thinking. Michael Fischerkeller, Emily Goldman, and Richard Harknett have once again made an incredibly valuable contribution to the development of American cyber policy and strategy through the writing of Cyber Persistence Theory. The authors push its readership to think beyond classical deterrence theory to new concepts for engaging and defeating undeterred adversaries in cyberspace. In short, this book argues the need for change and to take more risk to close an increasingly larger risk in our defense and national security as well as our public safety posture as American citizens To do so, the authors argue will require not only persistent engagement, but a 'whole-of-nation plus' effort. A must-read for both national and cyber security professionals! Time will tell whether cyberspace operations can have coercive effect, but it is unambiguously true that to date, nations have used cyberspace mostly to gain advantage in competing with other nations. Understanding how they do so is a new challenge that scholars of international relations would do well to take on, and this book is a superb point of departure for them. This book helps to fill a crucial gap in strategic thinking about the fundamentals of cyberspace and sets out a clear course of action for the US government. It is a must-read for students, analysts and policymakers.