Establishing Cyberspace Sovereignty

2. Sovereignty

Sovereignty is a complex concept in political science. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2010) defines sovereignty as the “supreme authority within a territory.” Generally, a nation has sovereignty when it meets two conditions. First, it must have “formal” or “technical” sovereignty in the sense of formal recognition of sovereignty by other governments. This is known as de jure sovereignty. Second, it must have both practical control and jurisdiction over a territory. This is known as de facto sovereignty. (Colangelo, 2009, p. 626) To claim de facto sovereignty, a nation must be able to control the territory it claims and protect it from outside influence. The point at which a nation can claim de facto sovereignty is also a useful demarcation for delineating the difference between an “environment” and a “domain”. For example, space did not become a domain until nations began to assert their presence within it; prior to that point, space was simply an environment.

Sovereignty’s historical relationship to geographic territory complicates applying sovereignty to both space and cyberspace. The international community generally acknowledges geographic boundaries in the air, land, and maritime domains, but boundaries do not always apply directly to space and cyberspace. Fortunately, laws and customs governing both de jure and de facto sovereignty in space have successfully been developed over the last half century. Understanding the historical development of sovereignty in space is useful as nations attempt to define sovereignty within cyberspace.