Internet of Things, cybersecurity and governing wicked problems: learning from climate change governance
| Author | Madeline Carr,Feja Lesniewska |
| Date | 01 September 2020 |
| Published date | 01 September 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0047117820948247 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0047117820948247
International Relations
2020, Vol. 34(3) 391 –412
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0047117820948247
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Internet of Things,
cybersecurity and governing
wicked problems: learning
from climate change
governance
Madeline Carr and Feja Lesniewska
University College London
Abstract
The implementation of the Internet of Things (IoT) is central to what the World Economic
Forum has coined the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’; a technological revolution built upon cyber-
physical systems that will blur the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres.
Novel interconnections will emerge as a result, challenging traditional relations and modes of
governance. However, a central feature of the IoT is that the implications of cyber (in)security
are no longer abstract. The IoT also returns us to the world of kinetic effects in international
relations; more familiar territory for IR. The resulting cooperation and coordination challenges
are transboundary in nature, occur at multiple levels across sectors, between institutions, and
will impact all actors, both public and private, in complex, often highly politicised ways. In this
article we argue that advances in global climate governance appear to be offering an early model
of a consensual rules-based approach within the existing international order that provides space
for advancing agility, flexibility, and polycentrism to meet the demands of ‘wicked problems’ like
the cybersecurity of the IoT. Perhaps one of the most important lessons to be drawn across
from climate governance is the role of robust mechanisms for knowledge exchange – specifically
between the technical and policy communities.
Keywords
climate change, cybersecurity, digital technology, governance, Internet of Things, wicked-
problems
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a prime example of the increasingly dense and com-
plex nature of human and non-human interconnections. Within, between and beyond
human and non-human beings, and supported by an ever-expanding planetary wide
Corresponding author:
Madeline Carr, Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy, University College
London, Gower St, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
Email: m.carr@ucl.ac.uk
948247IRE0010.1177/0047117820948247International RelationsCarr and Lesniewska
research-article2020
Article
392 International Relations 34(3)
cyber-physical mega-infrastructure, the IoT (interconnecting physical and virtual things
including humans) is being implemented to support transformations from healthcare to
energy security. Emerging through an increasing dependency on the IoT, these intercon-
nections will be integral to shaping international relations in the twenty-first century also
signal a failure to pre-empt and manage the impact of creating such a co-dependent
relationships.
Over the past quarter century, the governance of digital technologies has emerged as
one of the ‘wicked problems’ of our time. Questions have arisen (many remain unan-
swered) about the extent to which cybersecurity impacts on international security and
order. At a technical level, global cooperation on cybersecurity has been remarkably
effective at mitigating against and responding to threats to interconnected systems –
especially considering the lack of precedent for the scale and scope of the challenges
involved. The (largely unseen) community of global Computer Security Incident
Response Teams (CSIRTs) develop and share solutions, support one another during inci-
dent response, run training and capacity building programmes and generally cooperate to
manage cybersecurity challenges as they arise – across borders and political chasms.1
Yet despite a shared sense of exposure, global policy cooperation has been very slow
to come about where differing value systems, competition for resources, and broader
geopolitical tensions exist. The past two decades of trying to deal with the politics of
global cybersecurity has been carried out through a combination of post WW2 instru-
ments established to ensure a peaceful international order in which all can prosper, cou-
pled with forums established more recently to accommodate the ‘multi-stakeholder’
model of Internet governance. In general, negotiations have consistently struggled to
incorporate the integrated, interconnected and interdependent elements of digital tech-
nologies and cybersecurity while accommodating a Westphalian view of the state sys-
tem. As the need increases, the pace of international political coordination remains stuck
in an analogue gear – out of sync with the demands placed upon it through running a
global economy on a digital platform.
The implementation of the IoT is central to what the World Economic Forum (WEF)
has coined the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’2; a technological revolution built upon
cyber-physical systems that will blur the lines between the physical, digital, and biologi-
cal spheres.3 The IoT also blurs the boundaries between security and safety, and conse-
quently pushes existing cybersecurity global governance mechanisms and processes
even further to – or perhaps beyond – their limits. A central feature of the IoT is that
cybersecurity and the implications of it are no longer abstract. While vulnerabilities like
intellectual property theft, financial fraud, and ransomware remain current challenges,
the IoT returns us to the world of kinetic effects in international relations. Counterintuitively
then, this stage of technological innovation is in some ways, more familiar territory for
IR – but it is also quite different in other ways.
The cooperation and coordination challenges involved in minimising the security risks
of the IoT have many similarities to the governance of climate change. Both are ‘super-
wicked’ problems that are transboundary in nature, occur at multiple levels across sectors,
between institutions, and will impact all actors, both public and private, in complex, inter-
connected, and often highly politicised ways. Although climate change has distinguishing
characteristics such as its complex interrelationship with planetary ecological systems,
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