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Political elites in liberal democracies are showing heightened concern about threats to national security from the overseas political activities of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and its supporters. This Whitehall Paper argues that an effective liberal democratic policy response requires careful disaggregation of distinct sets of risks: to national security; civil liberties; and academic freedom. Although widely cited as a model to follow, Australia's response to these issues illustrates how aggregation of these diverse risks into a singular national security threat – commonly labelled ‘Chinese influence'– can produce alarmist public policy discourse, legislative overreach and mismatched institutional responsibilities. The Paper suggests a set of measures for liberal democracies to manage their engagement with China's powerful and increasingly authoritarian party-state.

This book outlines the main technological, legal, and operational options that liberal democratic nations have when confronting challenges in cyberspace. It offers a range of policy ideas they can adopt to make their defense stronger and deter future cyber-attacks. The author explores how liberal societies, especially those in the Western world, have so far confronted a variety of cybersecurity challenges by hackers in nondemocratic regimes like Russia and China. and zooms in on the main challenges that democratic states face in adopting strategies of cyber deterrence, and how those challenges shape their ability to actually deter hackers.

The Handbook on Democracy and Security offers an insightful new interpretation of the topic that reframes the contemporary challenge of democracy away from competing ideologies or external existential threats, and centres on the security of democracy in the minds and lived experience of its citizens. With a global focus, it provides a cutting edge understanding of contemporary developments in democratic breakdown, investigating the role of new media, social media and the Internet. Expert contributors explore how democracy is affected by the resurgence of populism, terrorism and migration alongside the decline of independent mass media and associated conspiracy theories. The Handbook further argues that the security of government by the people is best understood through the security of people and examines the analysis of democratic security. Providing a diverse range of perspectives on how democratic breakdown occurs, this Handbook will be an excellent read for political scientists interested in human security and the effect of social media on democracy. Policymakers interested in policy prescriptions and stabilizing democratic backsliding will also find this an illuminating and informative resource.