Description
Regional institutions and initiatives have expanded their engagements beyond conventional issues, as demonstrated by the different forms of regional cybersecurity cooperation. While the virtual feature of cyberspace necessitates actors to think beyond the confines of physical borders and territories, regional frameworks on cybersecurity cooperation are pursuing deeper and more comprehensive engagements. Among the growing literature on regional cooperation on cybersecurity, there is a lack of attempt to critically juxtapose geopolitical constructs with the potential changes brought by the virtual features of cyberspace. This article questions how cybersecurity cooperation frameworks are formed with recourse to their geopolitical constructs as regions. This article will discuss how cyberspace changes our understanding of geopolitics and how this discussion has fared in locating the changes brought to debates on regionalism. Due to their robust cybersecurity cooperation processes, lessons from the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will be drawn. This empirical survey will reflect how they refer to their respective understandings on regional constructs to motivate the need to cooperate on cybersecurity issues. Moreover, it will also reflect on how regional constructs might be transformed by cybersecurity cooperation.
