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À l’échelle internationale, le cyber semble omniprésent et il est pourtant rare dans les relations internationales. Son ubiquité, qui le fait échapper aux critères classiques de l’international (territorialisation, régime juridique, etc.), rend son appréhension malaisée et constitue un obstacle épistémologique. En voulant analyser ce que le cyber fait ou non aux Relations internationales, cet article souhaite ouvrir un débat. L’étude aborde le cyberespace comme un système sociotechnique qui s’est progressivement globalisé au point de devenir un enjeu important pour le système international. L’article examine et discrimine deux options pour les Relations internationales : tenir le cyberespace pour l’une des composantes technologiques du système international ou l’aborder comme un système qui n’est plus seulement un enjeu, mais une nature propre dont l’autonomie est limitée par les interactions avec le système international., At the international scale, cyber seems to be pervasive, though it is rarely mentioned in the International Relations. The ubiquitous nature of the cyber is not compliant with the classical criteria of the international (territorialization, legal framework, etc.). This leads to hinder the understanding of the cyber as a research topic and constitutes an epistemological impediment. By analyzing what the cyber makes – or not – to the International Relations, this article aims to initiate a debate. It deals with the cyberspace as a socio-technical system which gradually globalized to the point of being a major stake for the international system. It reviews and discriminates two options : tackling the cyberspace as one of the technological feature of the international system or addressing it as a system that is more than an issue but a nature per se whose autonomy is limited by the interactions with the international system.

Social Sciences and especially Sociology and History are very useful to understand how the Cryptographic Field has been shaped in France in 19th and 20th centuries. This paper tackles this issue explaining how and why this Field has been influenced in-depth by a strong process of 'Professionalism' under the Ecole Polytechnique rule.