Strategic conflict in cyberspace is essentially conducted by actors who are motivated by geostrategic interests. It is imperative to distinguish strategic conflict in cyberspace from other nefarious forms of cyber activity, such as cybercrime and cyber vigilantism. The utility of cyberwarfare in achieving these ends will ensure its growing importance as a conflict domain. In this way, territory can be controlled without having to defeat opposing forces in the field. Wars, using political rather than military means, are aimed at the control or coercion of large civilian populations, against whom the violence is now directed. Decisive battles fought by large, conventional armies are no longer at the core of modern warfighting. Second is the predominance of persistent, low-intensity irregular conflict. First, the abundance of State and non-State actors and the rise of proxy relationships between them, characterized by their transactional and variable nature. The military significance of cyberspaceĬyberspace aligns effortlessly with two key characteristics of contemporary conflict. Whilst cyberwarfare is a relative newcomer to the battlefront, replete with its domain immaturity, the increased militarization of cyberspace is nevertheless fundamentally reshaping the dynamics of contemporary and future conflict. Nowhere is this more obvious than in cyber conflict. The character of war is changing too, challenging our assumptions regarding its very nature and of how militaries think and fight. A decline in international cooperation – and what the UN terms ‘ diminishing global potential for the prevention and resolution of conflict and violence in all forms’ – is a collateral outcome of these tensions. Although these changes have been underway for decades, the emergence of a global pandemic, disruptive technologies and accelerated climate change have introduced additional volatility and pressure. Escalating global fragmentation is dismantling prevailing notions of power, conflict and the liberal international order. The world’s strategic paradigm has shifted.
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