«New Pearl Harbor»: assessments of the cyberthream in the US press

The metaphor "New Pearl Harbor" and its variant "Russian Pearl Harbor" is an important element of US foreign policy discourse and contemporary research. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is used both for "internal consumption" (political discourse) and for external. And in the XXI century. this metaphor very often arises in the coverage and analysis of contemporary Russian-American relations. The study of this metaphor in the United States is carried out in several directions. The authors come to the conclusion that in 2001 the “New Pearl Harbor” metaphor was transformed from the American media into the US foreign policy discourse. This attention to cyber threats was quickly reflected in official US strategic documents. Thus, the US National Security Strategy states: “Today, cyberspace enables state and non-state actors to campaign and attack against American politics, economics and security.” When analyzing and commenting on this provision of the US National Security Strategy, the American media unequivocally interpreted this threat as Cyber Pearl Harbor. Therefore, studying the specifics of understanding and using the concept of "Cyber Pearl Harbor" is an important and relevant research task, due to the provisions of the US National Security Strategy, which helps to highlight in more detail the specifics of constructing the image of foreign policy threats.