2025 Conference on International Cyber Security | 4-5 November 2025
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Panel 6

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National Perspectives on a Geopoliticised Internet

Tobias Liebetrau

Abstract

Keynote

Small State, Big Impact: How Czechia and Denmark Navigate Cybersecurity in a Transforming Digital Space

This paper starts from the assumption that to fully grasp the current (re)ordering processes of cyberspace we need to look at how small states navigate and impact these transformations. While cybersecurity scholars have primarily been concerned with the strategies, governance measures and practices of major powers (e.g. US, China, and Russia) and middle powers (the UK, France, Brazil, and India) the role of small states has generally been neglected (for exceptions see Burton 2013 and Pederseon 2023). This neglect has induced bias in both the field of cybersecurity studies and the public understanding of cybersecurity issues. Academic and policy discussion on cybersecurity often assumes strategic intent, economic resources, technological capabilities, and human capacity that only a few nations possess. This paper aims at furthering the debate on the role of small states and their role in the global security landscape. Drawing on and combining small states literature and cybersecurity governance literature, this paper advances the existing scholarship on cybersecurity by exploring how small states navigate the contemporary upheaval in the ordering of cyberspace. It argues that examining the cybersecurity practices of small states is crucial if we are to grasp the diverse ways in which current geopolitical and geoeconomic transformations play into cyberspace, including how limits, challenges and opportunities of global (re)ordering in cyberspace are perceived and acted upon. This paper compares two European small states: Czechia and Denmark. While both are small European states, differences in recent history, geopositioning, degree of digitization, and economic and technological capabilities allow us to unpack and explain convergences and divergences in perception of cybersecurity threats, implementation of cybersecurity governance measures and diplomatic cybersecurity practices. The research is based on two qualitative case-studies that combine expert interviews with private and public stakeholders in both countries and a document analysis of publicly accessible strategies, policies, and white papers. As such the paper contributes to the slowly emerging discussion on small state cybersecurity and demonstrates the importance of small state cybersecurity perceptions and practices in understanding current (re)ordering processes of cyberspace.