1. Industrial Policy: The Holy Grail of the French Cybersecurity
- Author:
- Danilo D'Elia
- Publication Date:
- 09-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Berkeley APEC Study Center
- Abstract:
- The 2008 ‘White Paper on Defense and National Security’ was the first major document to focus directly on national cyber threats as a key risk to France’s sovereignty. It defined new priorities – such as cyberattack prevention and response – and established, in July 2009, the National Agency for the Security of Information System (ANSSI) as an inter-ministerial agency with national authority for the defense of information systems. In 2013, a new version of the White Paper reiterated that the capacity to detect and protect against cyberattacks was ‘an essential component of [French’s] national sovereignty and economic well-being’. The same year, the French government launched an ambitious program and invested considerable efforts and expenditure on cybersecurity industrial policy. This article captures structural characteristics of public-private partnerships and stylizes the different conflicts behind the industrial movements in the 2009-2015 period: representation of digital sovereignty versus corporate interest in global market, national defense champions versus start-up ecosystem.
- Topic:
- Industrial Policy, Cybersecurity, Geopolitics, Risk, and Territory
- Political Geography:
- Europe and France