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News | July 31, 2018

Is There a Cybersecurity Dilemma?

By Dr. Martin C. Libicki

A security dilemma is said to exist when one country cannot make itself more secure without making another less secure. [2] Circa 1913, for instance, if a major European country sought security by drafting more men, its neighbors would feel impelled to do likewise to recover their former levels of security. During the Cold War, when deterrence was the only feasible response to threat posed by the other side’s nuclear weapons, any attempt to build more weapons or bring them to a higher state of readiness (for retaliatory purposes only, it would be claimed) would alarm the other side who would feel impelled to do likewise.

 

Is There a Cybersecurity Dilemma?