Letter from the dean.

• Author: Janow, Merit E.
• Position: Column

The School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University has long been known for the depth of its research and expertise with regard to international issues and its leading scholars and practitioners who have addressed fundamental questions of war and peace. In the postwar period, our faculty and graduates have been among the leading thinkers on nuclear doctrine, U.S. foreign policy toward Asia and Europe, approaches to conflict resolution, the design and implementation of institutions of global governance, and much more. This student-run Journal of International Affairs has, in turn, been at the forefront of engaging critical global policy challenges. I congratulate the editors for prioritizing the topic of cybersecurity and cyber risk as a focus for this edition.

The term "cyber" itself has come to connote security issues, but, in fact, cyber is just another dimension of "Internet" policy, which touches most areas of life today. The Internet has proven to be an astonishing instrument in support of innovation and inclusion. Interconnection and globalization are creating vast new avenues of risk and potential conflict. Cybersecurity is now a concern to everyone--the individual, the corporation, the NGO, or the nation-state. Cyber theft and cybercrime continue to threaten the data and personal information of millions of people worldwide. The possibility of cyber conflict also poses increasing global risks to nations, which has prompted a flurry of international efforts over the past few years to develop agreed-upon norms in cyberspace. Moreover, many nations are developing their own domestic policy and legal frameworks around cybersecurity and, where possible, exploring bilateral or regional arrangements. I think it is fair to say that we are still at the early stages of the formation of both domestic and international policy frameworks and it is critical that these policy frameworks fall into place quickly and thoughtfully.

Although research and writing around cybersecurity policy has been underway for several decades, the analytical and theoretical work around cybersecurity and cyber conflict is still being formed. A number of leading academic institutions now have cyber experts in one department...