Leiden University Student Repository

Balder, Max (2019)

The cybersecurity landscape of the European Union - an institutional journey of EU cybersecurity cooperation from 2001 to 2018

Master thesis | International Relations (MA)

How can we understand the institutional development of EU cybersecurity cooperation from 2001 to 2018 and what are the consequences of this process? The problem of integration is an old, the domain of cyber is new, controversial and interesting. The issue of cooperation within cyberspace is becoming paramount. This however has influence for the EU-member-state relationship as the classical understanding of sovereignty is eroded by cybersecurity. As cooperation is key to success within cyberspace there must be policy coherence in order to achieve this. The EU has several institutions to achieve this. This thesis will examine in detail the development of one of its cybersecurity institutions; the European Network and Information Security Agency, ENISA. By connecting the theory of institutionalism and using three mechanisms this agency is used as a casestudy to show how and why ENISA has developed from a small and insignificant agency to a big and influential agency within the span of...Show moreHow can we understand the institutional development of EU cybersecurity cooperation from 2001 to 2018 and what are the consequences of this process? The problem of integration is an old, the domain of cyber is new, controversial and interesting. The issue of cooperation within cyberspace is becoming paramount. This however has influence for the EU-member-state relationship as the classical understanding of sovereignty is eroded by cybersecurity. As cooperation is key to success within cyberspace there must be policy coherence in order to achieve this. The EU has several institutions to achieve this. This thesis will examine in detail the development of one of its cybersecurity institutions; the European Network and Information Security Agency, ENISA. By connecting the theory of institutionalism and using three mechanisms this agency is used as a casestudy to show how and why ENISA has developed from a small and insignificant agency to a big and influential agency within the span of just fourteen years.Show less

cybersecurity

EU

cooperation

institutionalisation

neo institutionalism

ENISA

Europol

European cybercrime centre

Europeanisation

Author

Balder, Max

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

MA European Union Studies

Supervisors

Scepanovic, Vera

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en