Democratic governments should take a more proactive approach to tame state sponsored hackers and hacking tools vendors, to stop ceding ground to authoritarians
Marietje Schaake / Foreign Affairs : Tweets: @nicoblar , @hoanssolo , @foreignaffairs , @foreignaffairs , @beavaugrante , @anapalacio , @loadev , @foreignaffairs , @dickensolewe , @foreignaffairs , @foreignaffairs , @foreignaffairs , @foreignaffairs , and @marietjeschaake Tweets: Nicolas Blarel / @nicoblar : “For centuries, states enjoyed a monopoly on the use of force. Thanks to the asymmetric power facilitated by digitization & proliferation of cyberweapons, that monopoly has slipped out of their grasp” Good read for #IIRLeiden2020 students with many concepts & actors we discussed https://twitter.com/... Franz-Stefan Gady / @hoanssolo : Don't think this is realistic but a good aspiration nonetheless: “In addition to ensuring that military uses of cybertechnology receive sufficient oversight, governments must cut the close ties between the private sector and intelligence agencies.” https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ ... @foreignaffairs : Most cyberattacks consist of a series of steady punches, not one major blow. Instead of fixating on dramatic events, policymakers should focus on strengthening democratic institutions to protect the public in cyberspace, @MarietjeSchaake writes. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ ... @foreignaffairs : What should democratic governments be doing to tame the lawlessness in cyberspace? https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ ... Batrice Vaugrante / @beavaugrante : Powerful article by @MarietjeSchaake on #Cybersecurity Threats “To do that, governments must recognize that the private sector wields outsize power in the digital world. Democratic states have ceded too much ground to corporations.” https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ ... Ana Palacio / @anapalacio : We miss @MarietjeSchaake in Brussels, her powerful voice as an MEP. This article “How to Deal With Cybersecurity Threats” is must-must read. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ ... @loadev : “Leaders have to muster the requisite political will to update norms, guidelines, regulations, and laws at the international level, because aggressors in cyberspace do not respect national borders.” @MarietjeSchaake (eng) https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ ... @foreignaffairs : “Just as nations agreed to international laws governing the conduct of war and nuclear weapons, so, too, must they establish agreements to fend off threats in cyberspace. Perpetrators of cyberattacks have remained unaccountable for too long.” https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ ... Dickens Olewe / @dickensolewe : “When democratic countries fail to curb the sale of aggressive hacking systems by companies within their own borders to illiberal governments, they are undermining the worthy ambitions of their foreign policies.” via @MarietjeSchaake https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ ... @foreignaffairs : For centuries, states enjoyed a monopoly on the use of force, but that monopoly has slipped out of their grasp as battles move into cyberspace. @MarietjeSchaake argues that democratic governments must step up to bring order to the digital world: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ ... @foreignaffairs : Policymakers point to the danger of a devastating attack on a country's critical digital infrastructure, but the more immediate risk in cyberspace comes from intrusions that fall far below that threshold, @MarietjeSchaake writes. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ ... @foreignaffairs : “Governments face a steep learning curve in understanding conflict and risk in the digital domain, but it's well past time that they take a more concerted approach to taming this lawless realm.” https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ ... @foreignaffairs : Most attacks in cyberspace fall short of the massive devastation of a “cyber-Pearl Harbor.” The more immediate risks to democratic societies comes from smaller intrusions that can still cause grave damage, writes @MarietjeSchaake. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ ... Marietje Schaake / @marietjeschaake : New in @ForeignAffairs my essay on how democratic governments can increase their role in shoring up accountability in the digital world ↘️ https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ ...
Context & Ripple Effects
Marietje Schaake's argument lands after a decade in which democracies treated political hacking as a defense problem: warnings back in 2016 that US election systems and voting machines were in the crosshairs were followed by the finding in 2018 that campaigns were still failing basic email security despite two years of headlines. Her move is to reframe the problem structurally — digitization has stripped states of their monopoly on force, so the targets of policy should be state-sponsored hackers and the commercial vendors supplying them, not just vulnerable inboxes.
The piece runs alongside its companion Foreign Affairs essay on bringing accountability to cyberspace, and it anticipates a shift already visible in later coverage: Brussels' tech-sovereignty push to cut reliance on US tech giants shows democratic governments converting digital policy into strategic autonomy, exactly the activist posture Schaake is calling for.
First-order effects
- Democratic governments face a direct fork between staying reactive — patching incidents years after they surface — and building active accountability regimes aimed at state-backed hackers.
- Political campaigns stay exposed at the baseline, since even constant public attention left them without working email security, which strengthens Schaake's case that defense alone cannot close the gap.
Second-order effects
- Commercial hacking-tool vendors fall under the accountability umbrella, forcing export-control and licensing debates inside democracies while authoritarian customers look for suppliers outside that perimeter.
- Brussels' tech-sovereignty agenda to reduce dependence on US tech giants gives the argument a live policy vehicle, though it draws pushback from EU businesses worried about the cost of decoupling.
Third-order effects
- If democracies institutionalize proactive cyber enforcement, cyberspace hardens into competing regulatory blocs — matching the rhetorical turn in techno-globalism from championing an open internet to imposing limits in the name of national interest.
- With digitization having eroded the state's monopoly on the use of force, oversight of cyberweapons drifts toward becoming a standing instrument of statecraft, comparable in ambition to traditional arms control — though whether democracies can coordinate faster than vendors proliferate remains genuinely unresolved.
The trend: Cyberweapons proliferation is pushing democratic states from passive cyber defense toward active regulation of hackers and the commercial tools market, mirroring the broader slide from open-internet idealism to techno-nationalist control.