Cyberspace in National Perspective : The case of the United States Technological advance of the past decades has shaped

a new spatial dimension, that offers unprecedented levels of connectivity among a vast range of actors. The Internet and other networks, that were at its dawn mostly used by a technically highly proficient groups of people, have quickly creeped into the lives of almost half of the Earths population. According to the International Telecommunication Union, almost !"# of the $orld%s population have access to the Internet. $hile the Internet reffers to the connection of servers that are operating within the $orld $ide $eb, there is also another term, originating from science fiction literature, which is being used when referring to more abstract principle of imagined space. The term cyberspace is nowadays being used by nation&states, which consider the emergence of importance of this imagined space as crucial and are taking steps which aim to obtain control over this emerging environment, in which human beings operate. This short paper analy'es the use of term cyberspace in documents published by the $hite (ouse, presidential office of the United )tates of America. It critically looks at the usage of the term and associations which are accompanying the term. The research question could be formulated as follow* "What is the relation between cyberspace and nation in the documents published by the White House?" and supporting question may be formulated as * "Is there a specific significance of cyberspace from the national perspective?". Theory $hat is cyberspace and what is the Internet+ The Internet is a decentrali'ed, globali'ed network of servers and computers. It is accessible by anyone owning an Internet connection and nowadays this term is mostly associated with names of companies such as ,oogle, -acebook, Twitter, etc.. /n the other hand cyberspace has quite loose definition. It may be defined as an imagined space, that does not have physical presence in this world. It is a set of abstract codes, ideas, images and principles that e0ist virtually, without having a physical form, yet they play a role in everyday physical lives of almost all the people in the $orld. In a book 1euromancer, where this term was desribed for the first time, cyberspace is defined as a * 2consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts . . . A graphic representation of data abstracted from the ban s of every
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3ata taken from http*44www.itu.int4en4ITU&34)tatistics43ocuments4statistics4.5# 4ITU67ey6.558& .5# 6I9T6data.0ls :9ited on ;th of 3ecember .5# <. This paper is being written by a person coming from the european environment and is necessarily ethnocentrically influenced, thus the perception of the Internet is influenced by locali'ation of webpages. This doesn%t mean, that there are not larger sites that may represent the Internet better in the other parts of the world =such as vk.com in >ussia and other countries that are using cyrilic script? renren.com, 8#.com, or perhaps weibo.com in 9hina@.

computer in the human system. !nthin able complexity. "ines of light ranged in the non space of the mind, clusters and constellations of data.."# 9yberspace is not Aust the Internet. It is also the space created within private networks, that are not necessarily accessible from the Internet, but may be connected to the Internet. Intranets within powerplants, factories, military facilities, governments, and others. 1etworks within the Internet itself, such as deep networks, where no sane beings dare to go. Thus we can conclude, that the Internet is cyberspace, but cyberspace is not Aust the Internet. The paper will be taking into consideration theoretical perspective of nation, as an imagined community, which was outlined by Benedict Anderson. It says, that members of a society create a nation if they imagine themselves as belonging to the same society, imagined communityC. There have been arguments stating, that national identity promotes feeling of solidarity with our own group =ingroup@, while e0cluding the member of the other group =outgroup@ =$odak, .55!@. The $hite (ouse being the site, where the president resides, is central to the -ederal ,overnment and the United )tates themselves. It may be also viewed as a symbol. This is based on the perception of the United )tates as presidential democracy, where the Dresident has the highest standing in the political hierarchy and we could argue, that the documents presented by the presidential office will be taken into account in the other parts of the government, or that they may influence the other parts of the system, that are operating within the field8 of the -ederal ,overnment. Hypothesis $% &ocuments publsihed by the White House relate nation and cyberspace, creating a sense of importance and exceptionality of the !nited 'tates when dealing with the problems of cyberspace. Hypothesis (% In order to promote the exceptional role of the !nited 'tates in the cyberspace, there might be a distincion between "!'" and ")H*+". Method In order to validate or disvalidate hypotheses we have to take a look at the set of documents presented by the $hite (ouseE. The documents were selected based on their name, where the
In 1euromancer, p. #. This book may be found online at https*44;chan.org4pr4src4A6neuromancer.pdf :9ited on ;th of 3ecember .5# <. Anderson%s perspective may be found at http*44www.nationalismproAect.org4what.htm . :9ited on Fth of 3ecember .5# <. There is a possibility, if not even necessity for this paper, to try and apply ideas of Dierre Bourdieu to the structure of the U) government and describing the $hite (ouse%s standing in the structure. 1ot only sketching out the concept, but comprehensively developing the idea, mapping the field and thoroughly describing the rules and relations which govern the field itself. 3ue to the scope of this paper it is almost impossible to perform a qualitative analysis based on all the documents

keyword on which the selection standed was cyberGG. This is based on a contemporary usage of anything cyber as more of a technical term. The analysis will be conducted by relating the term cyberspace; to the nation in the documents. 3ata were selected so that they originated under president%s /bama administration in order to maintain a certain degree of coherence and to come up with a conclusion, that would not be divided by the change of administrationF. Analysis In a document named International 'trategy for ,yberspace - .rosperity, 'ecurity, and /penness in a 0etwor ed World1 may be seen a certaing degree of relation between the U) and cyberspace. $hen referring to cyberspace, the author also differed between the United )tates and the global community, namely * 2 We live in a rare historical moment with an opportunity to build on cyberspace2s successes and help secure its future3for the !nited 'tates, and the global community.". (ere we can see the usage of comma in front of and, which creates a sense of difference between the U) and the global community. The same can be seen in the second paragraph, where the words used are "... for our 0ation, and for the world.". It could be argued, that the author uses comma before and when referring to two subAects in the whole document, however in later sentences we may see, that when referring to two subAects, the author does not use comma in front of and, such as when talking about 2"aw *nforcement% *xtending ,ollaboration and the 4ule of "aw". The importance of cyberspace can be seen in the part called &efense% &issuading and &ettering, where it is stated, that* 2When warranted, the !nited 'tates will respond to hostile acts in cyberspace as we would to any other threat to our country." This statement urges the importance of cyberspace as of a domain, which is vital for the government itself. The rest of the paragraph is * "We reserve the right to use all necessary means - diplomatic, informational, military, and economic - as appropriate and consistent with applicable international law, in order to defend our 0ation, our allies, our partners, and our interests. In so doing, we will exhaust all options before military force whenever we can5 will carefully weigh the costs and ris s of action against the costs of inaction5 and will act in a way that reflects our values and strengthens our legitimacy, see ing
published. /n the other hand this short paper may propose an approach and topic, that would be further developed in the final paper. And other associated terms that might be identified as substitute terms for cyberspace. This however does not mean, that /bama%s administration started anew. Huite the contrary. In order to understand the stance of the United )tates fully, one would have to look at the documents that have been published in the last C5 years, perhaps even more. It would be interesting to analy'e the documents that have been published by the $hite (ouse in Uni0 epoch, starting from #st of Ianuary #!;5. Jay be found at http*44www.whitehouse.gov4sites4default4files4rss6viewer4International6)trategy69yberspace6-actsheet.pdf :9ited on Fth 3ecember .5# <.

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broad international support whenever possible. " =p. .@. By listing military means as a possible response to acts occuring within cyberspace we may argue, that cyberspace is quite real form of space, which may be by its principle virtual, yet the perception of cyberspace by the government of the U) makes it real, arguably creating a new domain, within which the conflicts of the new century may occur, possibly even spilling into real, phyisical world. It is also interesting to look at the part stating, that 2...we will exhaust all options before military force whenever we can5..." and "...see ing broad international support whenever possible". 9ould it be interpreted in a way, so that if the interests, allies, partners, or 1ation are endangered and it is impossible to seek broad international support as it may not correspond with broad international perception of cyberspace, then the support will not be seeked and an unilateral action will be taken in order to preserve one of the aforementioned+ Conclusion 3espite being a domain, which was estabilished recently, cyberspace seems to have a strong role within the United )tates government. This conclusion is supported by the fact, that in the analy'ed document is a clause arguing for possible use of military force as an response to threat in cyberspace. $e can also see a possible connection between the 21ation2, which is used with capital 1 and cyberspace. /ne of these connections is the possible retaliation by military force, which is traditionaly a field controled by the government#5. (owever, the other part of hypothesis could not be verified within the analy'ed document, as there was no clear sign of e0ceptional role of the United )tates in cyberspace. Derhaps our future work may broaden the scope of analysis and analy'e more te0ts, thus obtain more data, which could help to verify4disprove completely the first hypothesis. The second hypothesis may have some some data supporting it. It might be said, that by using word 21ation2 the author refers to the United )tates, which are bigger than the other nations. There is also a possibility to interpret the comma in front of and as a sign distinguishing between the United )tates =1ation@ and the global community =the world@. Derhaps, the author meant, that the U) are not part of the global community or the world. 1evertheless, the supporting evidence is too insignificant and in order to validate the hypothesis it would be necessary to work with an imennsely larger set of data, perhaps even to perform a discourse analysis of the speeches and te0ts provided by the members of the $hite (ouse in media, on public meetings, and press conferences.
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)ince we are dealing with the case of the U), which is considered to be modern state =)orensen, .55#@, it is possible to use this statement, however if we were to discuss different type of states, such as failed states, where the internal sovereignty is not maintained by a centrali'ed power, then this statement would be invalid.

Bibliography ,ibson, $illiam. #!FC. 1euromancer. -ound at :https*44;chan.org4pr4src4A6neuromancer.pdf <. 9ited on ;th of 3ecember .5# .
International )trategy for 9yberspace -actsheet. .5##. $hite (ouse. -ound at : http*44www.whitehouse.gov4sites4default4files4rss6viewer4International6)trategy69yberspace6-actsheet.pdf <. 9ited on Fth of 3ecember .5# . International Telecommunication Union )tatistics. .5# . ITU. -ound at :http*44www.itu.int4en4ITU& 34)tatistics43ocuments4statistics4.5# 4ITU67ey6.558&.5# 6I9T6data.0ls <. 9ited on Fth of 3ecember .5# . 1atioanlism proAect. Unknown date. Unknown publisher. -ound at : http*44www.nationalismproAect.org4what.htm<. 9ited on Fth of 3ecember .5# .

$odak, >uth, >udolf de 9illia, 7arin Kiebhart, Jartin >eisigl. .55!. The 3iscursive 9onstruction of 1ational Identity. Edinburgh * Edinburgh University Dress