Mrs Fadhila Pratiwi1
1University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia
Biography:
Fadhila Inas Pratiwi is an assistant professor at the Department of International Relations, Universitas Airlangga. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in University of New South Wales (UNSW), Canberra with research title “The Securitisation of Cyber Security in Indonesia.” She obtains master’s degree in international relations (Security), University of Birmingham. Both her master and Ph.D. were fully funded by LPDP scholarship. She actively writes journal articles on non-traditional security issues, foreign policy, conflict and cooperation. Recently, she published a journal article titled “Cybersecurity Challenges in Indonesia: Threat and Responses Analysis” in Perspectives on Global Development and Technology.
Abstract:
My research examines how the Indonesian government securitises cyber security threats and whether those efforts have been effective. Using the post-Copenhagen School (CS) framework of securitisation, my research explores not only the government’s securitisation of cyber threats but also the audience’s (the Indonesian citizens’) response to these efforts. The post-CS approach was chosen over the traditional CS approach because the latter is often elitist and actor-focused, lacking in audience analysis seen as essential by the post-CS approach. In a country that faces criticism for its treatment of human rights, it is important to understand how the government might use threats such as to cyber security to justify limiting citizens’ agency. This paper presents two main arguments resulting from my research so far. Firstly, that the Indonesian government’s securitisation of cyber threats has happened sporadically as various government actors are involved in delivering the cyber security agenda to the audience. The securitisation process conducted by those government institutions has overlapped and the effectiveness of any particular agency’s securitisation attempts is, therefore, difficult to measure. There is, however, evidence of attempts to securitise cyber threats. The second argument is that the government’s securitisation efforts may provide an excuse to implement extraordinary measures that limit people’s rights. The next stage of my research will be to explore the audience response to these securitisation efforts to measure their impact which will provide a comprehensive picture of the cyber securitisation in Indonesia from the perspective of the actor and the audience.