Prospects for India–US Cyber Security Cooperation

Cyber security cooperation should be a natural area of cooperation between India and the United States for a number of reasons; both countries are democracies, with similar values and economic systems, and both have also been severely affected by threats emanating from cyberspace. The structural complementarities between the two economies, especially in the services sector, which is a major user of cyber networks provides further motive for the two countries to cooperate in this sector. Despite this strategic fit, there has been very little in the nature of cooperation, either bilaterally or multilaterally. In fact, both countries seem to have embarked on the futile exercise of securing their respective corners of cyber space in this shapeless and formless domain. Cyberspace would be better served if the two countries utilised their respective leadership positions to work pro-actively towards a cyberspace that is open, global and secure.