Organizational Subcultures: Creating Cybersecurity in the U.S. Military

• In Event: The Politics of Cyber Threat

Abstract

How does organizational composition affect the practice of cyberspace operations? To what extent do organizational subcultures matter to the study of cyberspace? In this paper, I argue that the composition of military organizations will influence how those organizations pursue and integrate cyberspace operations into military campaigns. Specifically, I argue that operational backgrounds – by which I mean the training, accumulated skills, organizational expertise, and related cultural instincts derived from one’s past professional experiences and codified in organizational subcultures – can, under certain conditions, function as the primary determinant of how organizations interpret new problems. These interpretations will affect the trajectory of the operations that follow. I test this argument by comparing the development of cyberspace doctrine in the U.S. and Russian Armies. I find that the presence or absence of certain organizational subcultures had a decisive impact on the how these organizations conceived of cyberspace operations and subsequently pursued cyberspace capability. As a result, I argue that organizational composition is of decisive importance to the study of cyberspace and to understanding the outcomes of cyberspace operations.

Author

• Sarah B White, United States Naval Academy