Abstract
This chapter will examine the changing understanding of national security in the cyber age, particularly with the development of an extensive Gray Zone. Gray Zone activities are now cyber-enabled and this has changed the nature of the Gray Zone. The boundaries of this zone are being bent and flexed. Until some firmer global norms and red lines are properly established by states in the international system, it will be difficult for behavior in the Gray Zone to be predictable or stable. Our contemporary understandings of effective deterrence and coercion in the international system are based on predictability, communication and signaling; aspects of the international system that are absent or at least very challenged in the information age. States that currently benefit from ambiguity in the Gray Zone seem to lack incentive to establish the norms and limits of their actions in a way that would lead to stability. The ability to utilize deterrence and coercion tactics effectively in the cyber age may be the unseen incentive provided from states with an interest in maintaining a rules-based order.