Europe’s cyber-power

Power-struggles define many if not all aspects of cyber-politics. But how do they play out in the case of the European Union, who claims influence in European and global cyberspace? This article dissects different existing conceptualizations of cyber-power in order to understand where they come from, what they mean, and what they do. It then searches the European Union’s cyber-security policy for different manifestations of that power. The aim of the article is twofold: One the one hand, it does groundwork for a more academic approach to questions of cyber-power, by presenting possible frameworks for analysis and by identifying issues and challenges for such an undertaking. On the other, it takes discussions about Europe’s cyber-power a step further, by offering alternative readings of cyber-power in a specific European context, thereby stimulating a broader discussion beyond the question of how much cyber-power the EU has and focus rather on the kind of cyber-power it has.