In its earliest days, the Internet seemed to all of us to be an unqualified good- It was a way to share information, increase productivity, and experience new freedoms and diversions. Alexander Klimburg was a member of the idealistic generation that came of age with the Internet. Two decades later, he-and all of us-have been forced to confront the reality that an invention that was once a utopian symbol of connection has evolved into an unprecedented weapon and means of domination. a Klimburg is a leading voice in the international dialogue on the implications of this dangerous shift, and inaThe Darkening Web, he presents the urgent reality that we are vastly underestimating the consequences of states' aspirations to project power in cyberspace. Cyberspace, Klimburg contends, is facilitating the emergence of a new dimension of political conflict. This world is marked by the rise of not only cyber warfare and hacking in its many forms, but also information warfare-propaganda and covert influencing. At risk is not only our personal data or electrical grid, but the Internet as we know it today-and with it the very existence of democratic societies.a a With a skillful blend of anecdote and argument, Klimburg brings us face-to-face with the range of threats the struggle for cyberspace presents, from an apocalyptic scenario of debilitated civilian infrastructure to a 1984-like erosion of privacy and freedom of expression. Focusing on different approaches to cyber-conflict in the US, Russia and China, Klimburg reveals the extent to which the battle for control in this new conflict is as complex and perilous as the one surrounding nuclear weaponsaduring the Cold War-and quite possibly as dangerous for humanity as a whole.aAuthoritative, thought-provoking, and compellingly argued, The Darkening Web makes clear that the debate about our different aspirations for cyberspace is nothing short of a war over our global values.
