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NOS-HS-Sekr. nord. sam.nemd. HumSam

EWS Security in an Age of Cyber War - Nordic Answers to Global Challenges

Alternative title: null

Awarded: NOK 0.13 mill.

Over the last couple of decades, a new man-made domain of war has materialized. Alongside war in the domains of land, sea, air, and space, hostilities between different types of political actors are now destined to take place in cyberspace. Most analysts agree that a few state actors have actually already made use of computer network operations (CNO) - as did presumably Russia during the war with Georgia in 2008 and the United States and Israel in their attempt to counter the Iranian nuclear program in 20 10 - and few experts doubt that the future will witness much more advanced and far-reaching efforts to utilize the so-called "fifth domain" during armed conflict. The central objective of this research initiative is to explore the ethical, legal, and str ategic implications and challenges of the proliferation of cyber warfare capabilities. The project thus adopts an explicitly multidisciplinary perspective on the advent of cyber war. Moreover, the potential for developing joint Nordic answers to some of t he major ethical, legal, and strategic challenges identified will be examined. To frame and structure the project, we propose a three dimensional approach and three general types of research questions. We plan to ask the same kinds of questions along the ethical, legal, and strategic dimensions of cyber warfare: What are the major implications of cyber war? What sorts of challenges will cyber war give rise to? Where will it make sense to produce collective Nordic answers to some of the challenges caused by the proliferation of cyber warfare capabilities? Bringing together researchers from the fields of international law, security studies, and military ethics, the research initiative has three concrete aims: One is to stimulate further Nordic research int o an area that has hitherto been neglected; another is to produce a rather short and easy accessible edited volume with contributions on some of the central issues raised above; finally, it is our asp

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NOS-HS-Sekr. nord. sam.nemd. HumSam