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Conference paper
Cybersecurity policy, punctuated equilibrium theory, and the Biden administration
APSA Annual Meeting: Rethink, Restructure, and Reconnect (Montréal, Québec, Canada, 09/15/2022–09/18/2022)
09/2022
Abstract
This paper extends research on national cybersecurity policy by testing whether punctuated equilibrium theory (PET) effectively explains the Biden administration's early positions on cyber and national security. Debate persists regarding whether and to what degree new administrations are able to chart new directions in major policy areas. Cybersecurity presents a particularly pressing challenge. As a relatively new national security concern, observers might expect a high degree of flexibility as strategic concepts, technical capabilities, and organization structures continue to evolve. Further, in the United States, transitions between presidential administrations and political parties represent major putative policy change. An earlier study found that, as predicted in PET, the Trump administration's cybersecurity remained relatively constrained within existing policy frameworks despite an express effort to implement major change. This paper extends that work by testing whether the Biden national cybersecurity policy conforms to predictions made by punctuated equilibrium theory. It evaluates the origins and content of the Biden administration's major cybersecurity policies between early 2021 and mid-2022. These findings will deepen the growing scholarship on cybersecurity and policy change and contribute to early evaluations of the Biden administration's national security strategies.
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- Title
- Cybersecurity policy, punctuated equilibrium theory, and the Biden administration
- Resource Type
- Conference paper
- Conference
- APSA Annual Meeting: Rethink, Restructure, and Reconnect (Montréal, Québec, Canada, 09/15/2022–09/18/2022)
- Format
- pdf
- Number of pages
- 12
- Copyright
- The content is available under CC BY NC ND 4.0 License CreativeCommons.org
- Identifiers
- 99380113388906600
- Academic Unit
- Reubin O'D. Askew Department of Government ; College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities
- Language
- English