Cyber
Time to Treat Hackers Like Satellites: Why Cyber Needs the Outer Space Rulebook
If you want to understand what’s missing in cyberspace, look up. In 1967, at the height of the Cold War, the international community agreed on the Outer Space Treaty (OST), a legal framework that still governs activity beyond Earth today. The foundational insight of...
Interning a Hacker
Recently, at a workshop at Harvard Law School, I grappled with the question of internment in any international armed conflict (IAC) in the near future. It is a question some are uncomfortable with, although the concept of internment remains legally available under...
One Year On: Are the ICRC’s Principles for Civilian Hackers Shaping the Laws of War?
In October 2023, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) laid down a stark warning: cyber warfare must not spiral into lawless destruction. Their eight rules for civilian hackers and four obligations for States were a bold attempt to align cyber operations...
Year Ahead – The Coming Year’s Evolution in the Law of Cyber Operations
Editors’ note: We are pleased to announce that Articles of War has recently added several thematic editors to our staff. Each editor has contributed a post to this year’s Year Ahead series with thoughts on issues or situations they recommend our readers track over the...
Lieber Workshop 2024: International Law and the Future of Multi-Domain Operations in the Indo-Pacific
Editors’ note: The views expressed in this post are those of the authors and not necessarily those of any other workshop participants. From October 28 to 31, 2024, the Lieber Institute for Law and Warfare hosted its eighth annual Lieber Workshop at its institutional...
The Evolving Interpretation of the Use of Force in Cyber Operations: Insights from State Practices
Editors’ note: This post is drawn from the author’s article-length work with Professor Michael Schmitt, “Cyberspace and the Jus ad Bellum: The State of Play” appearing in International Law Studies. The post and the article are both based on course work that the author...
Hybrid Threats and Grey Zone Conflict Symposium – Cyber Operations are Thriving in the Grey
Editors note: The following post highlights a chapter that appears in Mitt Regan and Aurel Sari’s recently published book Hybrid Threats and Grey Zone Conflict: The Challenge to Liberal Democracies. For a general introduction to the series, see Prof Mitt Regan and...
Hybrid Threats and Grey Zone Conflict Symposium – Rethinking Coercion in Cyberspace
Editors note: The following post highlights a chapter that appears in Mitt Regan and Aurel Sari’s recently published book Hybrid Threats and Grey Zone Conflict: The Challenge to Liberal Democracies. For a general introduction to the series, see Prof Mitt Regan and...
A Policy Approach for Addressing the “Cyber Attacks” and “Data as an Object” Debates
Among the issues examined at this week’s International Society of Military Law and the Law of War’s annual Silent Leges Inter Arma? (In Times of War, the Law Falls Silent?) Conference in Bruges, Belgium, is the protection of civilians against digital threats during...
The Woomera Manual and Military Space Activities and Operations
The ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine has clearly demonstrated the critical role satellites in outer space play in the conduct of contemporary armed conflict. The conflict itself has been termed the first commercial space war given the heavy reliance by both Ukraine...
Russia’s Alleged Nuclear Anti-Satellite Weapon: International Law and Political Rhetoric
The development and testing of anti-satellite weapons (ASATs), as well as debates concerning the legal and policy implications of ASAT testing and use, have existed since soon after the dawn of the Space Age. The centrality of these issues has waxed and waned over...
Space Privateers or Space Pirates? Armed Conflict, Outer Space, and the Attribution of Non-State Activities
Famously, George Clemenceau, Prime Minister of France at the end of the First World War, quipped that “generals always prepare to fight the last war, especially if they won it.” Such flaws of perspicacity, of course, are not limited to generals. After all, as Nobel...
