Routledge Studies in Conflict, Security and Technology

This book is a multi-disciplinary analysis of cyber warfare, featuring contributions by leading experts from a mixture of academic and professional backgrounds.

Cyber warfare, meaning inter-state cyber aggression, is an increasingly important emerging phenomenon in international relations, with state-orchestrated (or apparently state-orchestrated) computer network attacks against other states occurring in Estonia (2007), Georgia (2008) and Iran (2010). This method of waging warfare - given its potential to, for example, make planes fall from the sky or cause nuclear power plants to melt down - has the capacity to be as devastating as any conventional means of conducting armed conflict. Cyber warfare is also comparatively cheap, difficult to trace and can be instigated from great distances. Every state in the world now has a cyber-defence programme and over 120 states have a cyber-attack programme too. The United States alone has spent well over $100 billion on such programmes in the last 18 months. Revelations from earlier this year, in June 2013, regarding the massive cyber-surveillance apparatus developed by the American NSA, highlight the continued topicality of the subject.

The book acts as a cross-disciplinary - and comparatively comprehensive - reference point for anyone (academics, professional actors and decision-makers) engaging with the subject. Equally, the book will be an overview of cyber warfare from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Chapters consider: 1) the emergence of the phenomena of cyber warfare in international affairs; 2) what cyber-attacks are from a technological standpoint and an assessment of the technological development that has led to the potential for cyber war; 3) the extent to which cyber-attacks can be, as a technological matter, attributed to state actors; 4) the strategic value and danger posed by cyber conflict; 5) the legal regulation of cyber-attacks at the civilian decision-making level; 6) the legal regulation of cyber warfare 'on the ground', as part of an on-going armed conflict; and 7) the ethical implications of cyber warfare.

This book will be of great interest to students of cyber war, cyber security, military ethics, international law, security studies and IR in general.