4 ms·
Why don't they just say 'a government', then? The only other rationale I can think of is that 'nation state' sounds much cooler and cyberpunk.
by throw_away 7y ago
Why don't they just say 'a government', then? The only other rationale I can think of is that 'nation state' sounds much cooler and cyberpunk.
- samcal 7y agoThe reason that it's usually used in this context is that a nation state has a monopoly on violence within its borders. It's a natural extension in "cyberpunk" circles to apply this to digital violence.
- chrisseaton 7y ago> a nation state has a monopoly on violence within its borders But this isn’t unique to nation states.
- dreamcompiler 7y agoBecause cities, provinces, and states (as in one of the 50 comprising the United States) all have governments, and most of them do not have the resources for an international cyber-attack. Nation-states are by definition country-level governments.
- chrisseaton 7y agoNo, nation states are states which are also nations. For example Japan is a nation state but the UK is not.
- sterlind 7y agoSpecifically, nation states set their own foreign policy and have their own military. Usually APTs are associated with military or intelligence agencies, which only nation states have, though some (e.g. the Bears in Russia) aren't formally tied to the government (as much as being allowed to make money on the side.) I favor APTs as a term, since it denotes any actor with lots of technical means and a political/strategic rather than financial agenda. Many APTs belong to nation states, but that's not always true!
- Mountain_Skies 7y agoThe confusion seems to come from most people seeing nation and country as synonyms. The older traditional definition of nation has mostly faded except in the context of the modern use of the word nationalism, but even that has been perverted to mostly mean extremists.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]