The field of cybersecurity diplomacy is tackling new threats stemming from digital technologies. The last five years have seen increasing efforts by Middle East states to develop cybersecurity diplomacy capacity and bring it to bear on regional and global political issues. However, cybersecurity diplomacy in the Middle East must develop further, transitioning from a marker of digital inequality to an ameliorating factor, and helping to solve rather than avoid regional escalation and conflict.

James Shires is the Co-Director of both the European Cyber Conflict Research Incubator (ECCRI CIC) and the European Cyber Conflict Research Initiative (ECCRI). He has written widely on issues of cybersecurity and international politics, including The Politics of Cybersecurity in the Middle East (Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2021), and Cyberspace and Instability (Edinburgh University Press, 2023).