Cyberwar: Taking Stock of Security and Warfare in the Digital Age

Abstract

This article examines the implications of cyberwar for national security and traditional warfare. While not making traditional war obsolete, cyber-weapons can nonetheless be force-amplifiers for kinetic attacks in future wars. Not only are cyber-weapons easier to deploy, they can also be activated much more cheaply than conventional weapons. This cost-benefit ratio levels the playing field, especially to the benefit of Third World countries which lack considerable leverage in terms of exercising traditional military power. By bringing new aspects to the theater of war, cyberwar asks us to revamp our policy and study of security, war, and power. Although it does not change the very nature of warfare which remains political, instrumental, and violent, cyberwarfare will reshape the ways in which war begins or is carried out in the near future. Our analytical and theoretical understanding of the international politics of the digital age can be enriched by taking what is happening in cyberspace more seriously.