Social Media as an Emerging Cyber-Threat in IR

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to assess the current impact of SNS1 as a destabilization factor in the framework of IR2 within the theory of Structural Realism. The thesis analyses how SNS are currently being used as an asymmetrical tool by states to ensure their national security both offensively and defensively. Simultaneously, it also assesses how SNS may be weaponized in the cyber-space to wage war against other states. The paper covers the security dilemma derived from a technological arms race in cyberspace and its implications to the current International World order. Similarly, the thesis analyses the role of MNCs3 in this environment and ponders the impacts of SNS to current liberal democracies and individual freedoms.