Klimburg’s exploration of inter-state conflict in cyberspace is just one dimension of this complex fascinating book. Another is how the Internet will develop over the coming years. And that’s critical to all of us because, quite simply, the internet has become like the air we breathe: it sustains modern life. Klimburg looks at the struggle to control the internet and whether this critical tool will remain 'free and open' or be controlled by the state ... The 2016 election is a cautionary tale and just one reason why The Darkening Web is indispensable reading for anyone keen to understand what lies ahead as cyberspace displaces conventional battlefields as the preferred venue for resolving conflict.
...[a] quietly horrifying book ... Whether its author intends it or not, The Darkening Web eventually accumulates the picture of an impending apocalypse, an utterly unwinnable war in which the world's few good guys – in this account, the liberal democracies that are interested in social freedom and the uncensored flow of information – are outgunned, outspent, and outmaneuvered at every stage of what Klimburg refers to as the great cyber game.
It’s unfortunate that Klimburg’s book is diffuse, unfocused and feathered with egocentric first-person flourishes. Had the author presented his thoughts with more discipline and concision, his arguments might have had more impact. For the tale he tells is a chilling one ... his treatment of Russia’s vision of the Internet and its hyper-aggressive quest for supremacy in cyberspace still constitutes the most illuminating and absorbing passages in The Darkening Web ... The Darkening Web would be a better book if its six disjointed sections and 19 chapters, including a conclusion and epilogue, were substantially restructured and compressed.
Mr. Klimburg is not the most lucid or engaging guide through the technicalities of the subject. He is overly enamored of poli-sci speak and the jargon of international bureaucracy, devoting pages to discussions of 'path dependency' in the government decision-making process and the nuances of the 'multistakeholder approach.' He offers up the inevitable allusions to Clausewitz and Tom Friedman, and never seems to have met an acronym he didn’t like. At crucial moments he retreats into vagueness and platitudes. The more disappointing deficiency in The Darkening Web is the failure to engage the inescapable trade-offs that all of these challenges pose ... Mr. Klimburg effectively outlines the dangers we face but, when it comes to solutions, offers little more than abstractions about international governance mechanisms.
He argues that the present multistakeholder approach to internet governance is the best of all possible cyberworlds, and he recommends the formation of a kind of organization akin to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to represent these many constituencies while allowing for internet independence and a fully engaged fight against cyberinstability. Klimburg delivers an urgent warning that civil libertarians and cybernauts alike will want to heed.
After an accessible explanation of the origins and underpinnings of the internet, Klimburg segues to an in-depth discussion of the major players in cyberwarfare—primarily the United States, Russia, and China—and then discusses his vision and fears for the future, depicting a chilling portrait of the interdependency of the cyberspace and its emergence as a domain for political conflict. Once Klimburg moves into policy and theory, his arguments get a little more abstract and may fly over the heads of those less grounded in the matter ... The book serves as an excellent primer on cyberwarfare, especially useful in the context of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as accusations of Russian interference continue to make headlines.
