Understanding Cyber Security: a Policy Analysis of Cyber Policy Under the Obama Administration

Abstract

In 2011, the White House under the Obama Administration released their International Strategy for Cyber Security, a foundational document that outlines an approach to the future of cyberspace that unifies the United States' engagement with international and national partners on a full range of issues. The goal of this study is to inductively explore both this document and the cyber policy that followed its release under the Obama Administration, comparing the policy both thematically and by the frequency of topic discussions over time in order to create a stronger understanding of U.S. cyber policy. Ultimately, it generates the hypothesis that U.S. cyber policy may be responding to cyber incidents of a certain magnitude and suggests further research so that the hypothesis can be tested.