TY - JOUR
T1 - The Damoclean sword of offensive cyber
T2 - Policy uncertainty and collective insecurity
AU - Leuprecht, Christian
AU - Szeman, Joseph
AU - Skillicorn, David B.
PY - 2019/7/3
Y1 - 2019/7/3
N2 - Cyberspace is a new domain of operation, with its own characteristics. Cyber weapons differ qualitatively from kinetic ones: They generate effects by non-kinetic means through information, technology, and networks. Their properties, opportunities, and constraints are comparable to the qualitative difference between conventional and nuclear weapons. New weapons and their target sets in a new domain raise a series of unresolved policy challenges at the domestic, bilateral, and international levels about deterrence, attribution, and response. They also introduce new risks: uncertainty about unintended consequences, expectations of efficacy, and uncertainty about both the target’s and the international community’s response. Cyber operations offer considerable benefits for states to achieve strategic objectives both covertly and overtly. However, without a strategic framework to contain and possibly deter their use, make state and non-state behavior more predictable in the absence of reciprocal norms, and limit their impact, an environment where states face persistent attacks that nonetheless fall below the threshold of armed conflict presents a policy dilemma that reinforces collective insecurity.
AB - Cyberspace is a new domain of operation, with its own characteristics. Cyber weapons differ qualitatively from kinetic ones: They generate effects by non-kinetic means through information, technology, and networks. Their properties, opportunities, and constraints are comparable to the qualitative difference between conventional and nuclear weapons. New weapons and their target sets in a new domain raise a series of unresolved policy challenges at the domestic, bilateral, and international levels about deterrence, attribution, and response. They also introduce new risks: uncertainty about unintended consequences, expectations of efficacy, and uncertainty about both the target’s and the international community’s response. Cyber operations offer considerable benefits for states to achieve strategic objectives both covertly and overtly. However, without a strategic framework to contain and possibly deter their use, make state and non-state behavior more predictable in the absence of reciprocal norms, and limit their impact, an environment where states face persistent attacks that nonetheless fall below the threshold of armed conflict presents a policy dilemma that reinforces collective insecurity.
KW - Cyberwarfare
KW - Collective security
KW - Cyber operations
KW - Cyber-attack
KW - Hybrid warfare
KW - Security dilemma
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85063568141&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1080/13523260.2019.1590960
DO - 10.1080/13523260.2019.1590960
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85063568141
SN - 1352-3260
VL - 40
SP - 382
EP - 407
JO - Contemporary Security Policy
JF - Contemporary Security Policy
IS - 3
ER -