Runet to Cyberwar

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

From Runet to Cyberwar: Whether through election meddling and disinformation or ransomware and critical infrastructure attacks, Russian strategy and capabilities in cyberspace have come to be considered a prominent threat to Western cybersecurity. Yet there is much about Russia’s unique approach to cyberspace and how it has developed that remains poorly understood though critically important to making sense of the regime’s growing authoritarianism at home and belligerence abroad. This course examines Russia’s relationship with the global Internet and its role in the evolution of domestic politics and foreign policy. In tracing the evolution of the Russian Internet, RuNet, and its important role in fostering new forms of political discourse, journalism, and protest mobilization, we will examine how these developments have been met with increasing efforts at control and manipulation of the information space. Likewise, the course will examine Russia’s understandings of threats and conflict in and through cyberspace and their impact on current international affairs and the future of the global Internet.