AL CINCILEA DOMENIU: NOUL TĂRÂM AL COMPETIȚIEI DINTRE SUA ȘI CHINA
THE FIFTH DOMAIN: THE NEW REALM OF COMPETITION BETWEEN THE USA AND CHINA

Summary/Abstract: In 2007, President George W. Bush asked his security advisers a third option - after diplomacy failed and the war didn’t appear the bests of strategies - in order to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency at the time, proposed a final effort in the form of a digital virus, which later became known as Stuxnet. This ‘Hail Mary’ proposed by Alexander would release of the Pandora’s Box the weapon of future confrontations in the fifth domain. The US may have avoided a conventional war with Iran, but launching Stuxnet into the world has opened up a whole new front. The virus had crossed the Rubicon from defensive espionage to an offensive cyber weapon, and in just a few short years it would be used as a precedent by America's biggest competitor in the 21st century – China. There is currently no more significant competition for the future of world politics such as that between the US and China. And in the relationship between the two superpowers, there is no other field that would aroused more divergences than cyber security. Mutual mistrust is growing and is beginning to generate profoundly negative assessments of each country’s long-term strategic intentions. This essay introduces some assessments and predictions regarding the dynamics within the digital space between Washington and Beijing. The cyber domain is proving to be as challenging as the traditional concerns that have long dominated the US-China agenda. The analysis is also introducing a new concept in the theoretical field of international relations – cyber realism.

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