Conclusion

This book emerges from a critical gap in the cyber security literature. Scholars and policy makers alike have struggled to examine cyber coercion empirically. Despite limitations inherent in collecting data on covert action, without systematically examining cyber exchanges it is difficult to understand contemporary strategic competition. What is the purpose of cyber coercion? How do rival states align ends, ways, and means? Does it work? There are constraints and challenges in applying new methods of influence to coerce a target to change their behavior. Compellence is difficult and costly, requiring an accumulation of efforts to achieve effects. This suggests scholars should take an evolutionary perspective on the utility of new weapons and their ability to leverage power and influence. The key for states seeking to avoid dangerous escalation is to create new norms, share information on attacks and vulnerabilities, and encourage public-private multilateral frameworks that help restrain our worst tendencies.