Introduction

Abstract The introduction presents the core argument that international political contestations in cybersecurity can be better understood adopting a semi-state actor lens, which the book builds through a sustained application of the historical analogy to mercantile companies, privateers, and pirates. The chapter introduces the three main claims of the book: First, by analysing contestations in cyber(in-)security against the background of the history of piracy and privateering, one can better understand how state proximity is used politically by both attackers and defenders. Second, the longevity and path dependencies of historical privateering setups refine our understanding of the constancy, and the long-term risks and rewards, of state collaboration with cybercriminals. Third, by treating large technology companies, such as Apple, Google, or Huawei, as political actors of their own kind, the mercantile company lens sharpens the focus on how cooperative and conflictive relations to states, and practices of self-protection, influence cyber(in-)security.