Cybersecurity Discourses and Social Power Relations: The Political and Strategic Dimensions of Digital Security

Authors : Rashad Mammadov

Pages : 111-121

Doi:10.58724/assam.1818761

View : 49 | Download : 84

Publication Date : 2025-12-22

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :In the digital age, cybersecurity has evolved from merely a practice of protecting information systems into one of the fundamental determinants of political authority, governance, and social order. Initially approached as a technical necessity, information security today is directly linked to the regulation of behaviors, the surveillance of digital citizens, and the control of national and global information flows. This study critically examines how cybersecurity discourses are constructed, circulated, and employed to legitimize power relations. Within the framework of critical security studies and Foucault’s theory of power–discourse, it analyzes how the concept of “cyber threat” is framed as an existential danger and how this framing legitimizes extraordinary security measures by states.A qualitative discourse analysis of state strategy documents, national cybersecurity policies, and media narratives reveals that cybersecurity discourses often serve a “securitizing” function. In this process, technical risks are transformed into social fears, thereby rationalizing increased surveillance, control, and regulatory interventions in digital domains. Thus, cybersecurity becomes not merely a tool of protection but also a language of power that shapes social decisions about who constitutes a threat and who is deemed worthy of protection.The findings indicate that cybersecurity goes beyond the goal of safeguarding digital infrastructures, reproducing new forms of control and asymmetric power structures in contemporary societies. The relationship between security, information, and governance constitutes the fundamental dynamic of constructing a new “technopolitical order” in the digital age.
Keywords : Siber güvenlik, Güç ilişkileri, Söylem analizi, Dijital egemenlik, Gözetim, Eleştirel güvenlik çalışmaları

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