National cyber security strategies serve as useful tool to identify a state’s general position in regards to the rules and principles in cyberspace, finds the NATO CCDCOE’s law researcher Ann Väljataga in her study ‘Tracing opinio juris in National Cyber Security Strategy Documents’.
By the end of 2018, almost 90 countries had adopted a national cyber security strategy. Diverse interpretations of international law in the cyber context are well reflected in Tallinn Manual 2.0 on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Operations, a process and publication led by the CCDCOE, providing a comprehensive overview of various legal questions that arise with respect to cyberspace. At the same time, international cyber law has still many gray zones. In the comparative analysis of strategy documents from seven countries, the CCDCOE law researcher Ann Väljataga argues that national cyber security strategies serve as a valuable source of information on how states think and interpret the limits of mandatory, allowed and prohibited behaviour in cyberspace.