Diplomatic action in international relations is a global security priority in the inter-connected world. The birth of cyber diplomacy, occurred in the year 2007, which will always be remembered due to a wide-ranging cyber attack on Estonia. Indeed, Estonia is known for being one of the most wired countries in Europe. The attack consisted of crippled computer networks because of hackers which paralysed numerous amount of government and corporates sites. The escalation in these kinds of attacks highlighted the need for governments to formulate national cyber strategies. This sprang from the realisation that cyberspace, like the physical world, also has military and strategic dimensions and requires countries to work together to defeat cyber opponents. Attacks within cyberspace are subject to strategically-formulated threats, which go beyond the usual physical terrorist-type threats. Global progress, democracy and peace are at stake. This makes cyber diplomacy a major issue for countries’ foreign policies, due to the interdisciplinary nature of the domain. A number of aspects are relevant in this respect: policies, politics and sociology (dread), diplomacy, digital/cyber science, multilateralism and world history. This paper reports on a systematic literature review that was carried out to reveal the dimensions of current cyber diplomacy research. While a number of studies have introduced and defined “Cyber Diplomacy” and its associated diplomatic actions, none have sought to distinguish this field from the more traditional and well established diplomacy concept. This is a significant gap in the literature, which will be the topic of future research.

Background. Nation states unleash cyber attacks targeting other nation states (e.g. WannaCry, SolarWinds), termed "offensive cyber operations". When such aggressions are deemed, according to the UN Charter, to constitute a threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression towards a nation state, governments might choose to respond. Responses can range from silence all the way to retaliation, at the other end of the scale. The emergence of cyber diplomacy suggests a less militant and potentially powerful response option. Barrinha and Renard [5] explain that the rise of cyber diplomacy has coincided with "a growing contestation of the values, institutions and power dynamics of the liberal-created cyberspace". (p.3). The question is: how could cyber diplomacy fit into a strategic threat management plan? Aim. To position cyber diplomacy within a strategic response to nation state offensive cyber operations.Method. To help us to position cyber diplomacy's role in this domain, we first examine historical cyber conflicts, and governments' responses to these, as well as testing the factors that might explain response choice. We then review a number of proposed options for managing cyber conflicts.Results. We propose a comprehensive "Five D's" strategic framework to manage the threat of offensive cyber operations. Cyber diplomacy is included, acknowledging its emerging and potentially powerful role in managing cyber conflicts in the future.Conclusions. Cyber diplomacy has recently emerged and it has not yet been widely deployed. We show how it can be positioned within a strategic framework for managing the threat of offensive cyber operations from other nation states.