No armed forces? Consider cyber warfare (Just war, Part 9)

By guest author Mike Corgan

So far, most of the posts in the just war series in this blog have dealt with the circumstances under which a country can resort to war. But there has been a tacit understanding that only countries with what we all recognize as armed forces are under consideration.

Cyber war training course
U.S. military cyber war training. Image in public domain

That is changing  dramatically. Soon even poorer countries can consider resorting to a damaging war–and they would be following the U.S. lead when they do so.

There are two technological innovations that make this possible: cyber or network warfare and drones (unmanned aircraft vehicles or UAVs as they are often labeled). The U.S. has  had the lead in using both tools, but we won’t be alone for long.

The military philosopher Carl von Clausewitz said that things in war never reach ultimate violence because you can’t deliver all your force at once. That was even true with nuclear weapons. But now that circumstance is changing fast. Consider cyber warfare.

Computer hacking by various disruptive elements has been a widespread annoyance for some time now but someone with major hardware and resources, and with requisite malice can do real damage. It’s more than scrambling ATMs, disrupting traffic lights, or turning off the power.

Positive destruction is now within the capability of even modestly equipped network warriors. For example, reverse the current and polarity of electricity at a power plant and huge, hard to replace generators can be ripped off their foundations.

Michael T. Corgan, Associate Professor and Associate Chair, International Relations, Boston University