TY - BOOK
T1 - Nuclear-proof Communications?
T2 - The Cold War and the Governance of Telecommunications Security in NATO and Denmark
AU - Jensen, Sanne Aagaard
PY - 2019/3
Y1 - 2019/3
N2 - The PhD dissertation Nuclear-proof communications examines how the Cold War brought about a new security policy dimension in the area of telecommunications. Drawing on the concept of ’technopolitics’, the dissertation analyses how different efforts to connect and protect telecommunications in NATO and one of the member states, Denmark, from the late 1940s through to the 1980s were shaped by both technological and political factors and came into being in acivilian-military interaction. The author argues that national tele administrations in Western Europe became involved in a new kind of transnational ’system-building’, since NATO’s internal communications largely relied on national resources. As the dissertation shows, this raised a number of dilemmas in Denmark on how to balance civilian-military communication needs, national security, and commercial interests. However, it also provided opportunities for prioritising civilian aspects in the extensive defence build-up. Moreover, the dissertation shows how new perceptions of vulnerability were integrated into communications planning in response to the nuclear threat–and directly catalysed by the NATO membership–but also how the perception of vulnerability was broadened over time to include many peacetime scenarios. In this way, the governance of telecommunications security extended beyond the security challenges directly related to the Cold War. In documenting a hitherto unexplored aspect of Cold War preparedness planning, the dissertation offers historical perspectives to ongoing discussions on the governance of critical infrastructures.
AB - The PhD dissertation Nuclear-proof communications examines how the Cold War brought about a new security policy dimension in the area of telecommunications. Drawing on the concept of ’technopolitics’, the dissertation analyses how different efforts to connect and protect telecommunications in NATO and one of the member states, Denmark, from the late 1940s through to the 1980s were shaped by both technological and political factors and came into being in acivilian-military interaction. The author argues that national tele administrations in Western Europe became involved in a new kind of transnational ’system-building’, since NATO’s internal communications largely relied on national resources. As the dissertation shows, this raised a number of dilemmas in Denmark on how to balance civilian-military communication needs, national security, and commercial interests. However, it also provided opportunities for prioritising civilian aspects in the extensive defence build-up. Moreover, the dissertation shows how new perceptions of vulnerability were integrated into communications planning in response to the nuclear threat–and directly catalysed by the NATO membership–but also how the perception of vulnerability was broadened over time to include many peacetime scenarios. In this way, the governance of telecommunications security extended beyond the security challenges directly related to the Cold War. In documenting a hitherto unexplored aspect of Cold War preparedness planning, the dissertation offers historical perspectives to ongoing discussions on the governance of critical infrastructures.
M3 - Ph.D. thesis
BT - Nuclear-proof Communications?
PB - Det Humanistiske Fakultet, Københavns Universitet
ER -