Location
Military and Diplomacy
Level of Education
Doctoral
Secondary Session
Foreign Policy Morality & Theory
Keywords
cyber, theater of war, nanocomputers, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, robotics, Just War Theory, Christianity
Presenter Names and Speeches.
Elizabeth Cook
Abstract
Few could imagine how it would develop when the air was the new theater of war. The literature showcases that a lack of imagination and state-level institutionalized power structures, particularly in the U.S., hampered the progress of air as a new theater of war both in thought and application. Today, a similar lack of imagination on the cyber theater of war is a great source of insecurity in the world system; it sets the stage for strategic shocks like the ones to the U.S. on December 7, 1941, and 9/11. To avoid this, states should imagine how a convergence of cyber technologies into new weapons could be used in war and by whom. Popular movies today form the basis for considering what has yet to be realized in the cyber theater of war. Its nascent history and designation as a theater of war foreshadow the expectation that eventual traditional war will occur in the cyber realm. When nanocomputers, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, speed, and advanced robotics fully converge, new weapons are possible and likely. The Just War Theory, understood through the Christian lens rather than only as a matter of secular international law, is applied to the evolving cyber theater of war to fill current doctrinal gaps in the just cause and conduct of future war within the cyber realm.
Included in
International Relations Commons, Political Theory Commons, Science and Technology Studies Commons
The Future of the Cyber Theater of War
Military and Diplomacy
Few could imagine how it would develop when the air was the new theater of war. The literature showcases that a lack of imagination and state-level institutionalized power structures, particularly in the U.S., hampered the progress of air as a new theater of war both in thought and application. Today, a similar lack of imagination on the cyber theater of war is a great source of insecurity in the world system; it sets the stage for strategic shocks like the ones to the U.S. on December 7, 1941, and 9/11. To avoid this, states should imagine how a convergence of cyber technologies into new weapons could be used in war and by whom. Popular movies today form the basis for considering what has yet to be realized in the cyber theater of war. Its nascent history and designation as a theater of war foreshadow the expectation that eventual traditional war will occur in the cyber realm. When nanocomputers, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, speed, and advanced robotics fully converge, new weapons are possible and likely. The Just War Theory, understood through the Christian lens rather than only as a matter of secular international law, is applied to the evolving cyber theater of war to fill current doctrinal gaps in the just cause and conduct of future war within the cyber realm.
