Alliance Resilience in the Digital Age: Cybersecurity as a New Binding Force

While Zou (2024) highlights how military alliances like NATO face security dilemmas in contemporary geopolitics, and Jankulovski (2025) notes COVID-19's disruption of global cooperation, this research explores cybersecurity as a novel catalyst for alliance cohesion. Unlike traditional balancing acts, cyber threats (e.g., ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure) demand rapid, trust-based collaboration even among rivals. Drawing on Oishi and Sakuwa's (2020) network theory approach, I’d analyze whether cyber alliances (e.g., NATO’s Cyber Defence Pledge) foster structural balance or exacerbate fragmentation. The novelty lies in treating cybersecurity as a "glue" for alliances—potentially overriding historical tensions (e.g., U.S.-China tech rivalry)—while also probing how cyber conflicts might create new "abandonment vs. entrapment" dilemmas (Gao, 2025).

References:

1. Balancing Act: The Dual Role of Military Alliances in Contemporary International Relations. Wenxuan Zou (2024). Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media.
2. THE CHALLENGES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN THE POST-COVID ERA. Stevce Jankulovski (2025). International Journal of Economics Management and Tourism.
3. The Dual Alliance Under the Perspective of the Theory of Alliance Dilemma: A Study Centered on Macedonian Reforms (1903-1908). Jianzhi Gao (2025). BULLETIN OF THE INSTITUTE OF ORIENTAL STUDIES.
4. Structural balance of alliance and rivalry networks in international relations. Koji Oishi, Kentaro Sakuwa (2020). Artif. Life Robotics.