Description
Russia has engaged in cyber operations against Ukraine and the countries that have been actively supporting Ukraine. Despite the 2010s being full of discussion and analysis of how cyber was the 5th domain of warfare, it is notable how little attention cyber operations in Ukraine have generated, and the dominance of the kinetic theatre.
This article posits that explanatory power can provided by reconceptualising cyber operations in the context of the changing dyadic relationship between the real and virtual world. By identifying the four different temporal phases that underpin the development of our understanding of cyberspace and the relationship to armed combat a mismatch between policy and strategy becomes evident, and is visible in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Conceptually the observations raised in this article indicate that a return to consideration of cyber as a force-multiplier, rather than a separate domain of warfare may be optimal, and indeed, where the current trend of the real-virtual world relationship is heading.
