Cyber State-building: A Guest Lecture by Dr. Mark Raymond

On Thursday the 22nd of September, Professor Mark Raymond of the University of Oklahoma hosted a guest lecture on his research on Cyber State-building hosted by American University’s Internet Governance Lab. During his presentation, Professor Raymond presented the paper he is working on alongside co-authors Wania Yad and Ayazhan Muratbek which investigates the ways in which a state’s adoption of digital technologies impact the formation and transformation of said states. In his lecture, Professor Raymond identified the development and transformation of norms and laws, reorganization of government bureaucracy, and changes to the role of state-society relations as potential indicators of cyber state-building. As a case study, Professor Raymond and co-authors Yad and Muratbek investigated Kazakhstan's digitization and the impacts it has had on the state. Professor Raymond and his co-authors discussed a variety of evidence found in the case study, notably an evaluation on how “Bloody January,” a series of mass protests that took place in Kazakhstan in January of 2022 which resulted in more than 200 deaths, was impacted by cryptocurrency. From this case study, Professor Raymond and his co-authors have claimed that their research shows strong indications of cyber state transformation in Kazakhstan and that they believe that other countries may also be experiencing similar transformations and developments. Following his lecture, Professor Raymond answered questions from those in attendance, including those regarding the implications of his research.

The Internet Governance Lab looks forward to the publication of Professor Raymond and his co-authors’ work and all other future investigations into the impact of cyber technologies on state building and transformation.