Course teached as: B027088 - ICT POLICIES AND CYBERSECURITY Second Cycle Degree in INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND EUROPEAN STUDIES
Teaching Language
English
Course Content
The course ICT Policies and Cybersecurity will focus on the relationships between cyberspace and international politics, with a special focus on the analysis of policies and decision-making processes related to Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) at international, regional and national level.
Send an email to luigi.martino@unifi.it in order to receive the syllabus
Learning Objectives
KNOWLEDGE: The course focuses on cyberspace and its implications for private and public, sub-national, national, and international actors and entities, changes to the international system structure, and new modes of conflict and international cooperation. To this purpose, at the beginning of the course, the professor will introduce the theoretical framework which will allows students to conceptualize the basic information about ICT policies, cyber security practices, and cyberpolitics at large.
ABILITIES ACQUIRED AT THE END OF THE COURSE: The main aim of the course is to provide students with specific "knowledge tools" in order to analyze autonomously issues, scenarios and research topics related to the implications of cyberspace in the international politics.
CAPACITY TO APPLY KNOWLEDGE: Students will be required to read proposed readings, conduct research and present the result of the research with appropriate technical, professional and oral skills.
Prerequisites
None
Teaching Methods
Seminars and discussions of students' presentations.
Students are expected to participate actively in the course.
Type of Assessment
Attending Students
For those who have followed the lessons regularly, the final exam will be structured as follows: they will have to present a research paper (i.e. position paper) addressing research topics which must be agreed with the professor. Paper will be presented and discussed with the class. Final grade will be assigned on the basis of the students' class presentations and paper's discussion.
NON-attending students
Non attending students will take an oral exam on readings suggested by the professor.
Students who do not regularly attend class will be assessed through a mixed evaluation based on the research paper and oral exam.
Course program
The course ICT Policies and Cybersecurity will analyze the emerging interaction between cyberspace and international politics, with particular attention to the analysis of the policies adopted to improve the cyber security capabilities of the international systems' actors (public and private) at international, regional and national level. The course, through a multidisciplinary method, will focus on the study of the effects of cyberspace on politics and international relations, including, inter alia, the study of empirical cases on multilateral and bilateral diplomatic initiatives put in place with the aim of mitigating the risks of political and military escalation in cyberspace, as well as the analysis of the international regulatory and standardization frameworks adopted to govern the he market of information and communication technologies (ICT).