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The Virtual Weapon and International Order
An urgently needed examination of the current cyber revolution that draws on case studies to develop conceptual frameworks for understanding its effects on international order
The cyber revolution is the revolution of our time. The rapid expansion of cyberspace in society brings both promise and peril. It promotes new modes of political cooperation, but it also disrupts interstate dealings and empowers subversive actors who may instigate diplomatic and military crises. Despite significant experience with cyber incidents, the conceptual apparatus to analyze, understand, and address their effects on international order remains primitive. Here, Lucas Kello adapts and applies international relations theory to create new ways of thinking about cyber strategy.
Kello draws on a broad range of case studies - including the Stuxnet operation against Iran, the cyberattacks against Sony Pictures, and the disruption of the 2016 U.S. presidential election - to make sense of the contemporary technological revolution.
Synthesizing data from government documents, forensic reports of major events, and interviews with senior decision-makers, this important work establishes new theoretical benchmarks to help security experts revise strategy and policy for the unprecedented challenges of our era.
The cyber revolution is the revolution of our time. The rapid expansion of cyberspace in society brings both promise and peril. It promotes new modes of political cooperation, but it also disrupts interstate dealings and empowers subversive actors who may instigate diplomatic and military crises. Despite significant experience with cyber incidents, the conceptual apparatus to analyze, understand, and address their effects on international order remains primitive. Here, Lucas Kello adapts and applies international relations theory to create new ways of thinking about cyber strategy.
Kello draws on a broad range of case studies - including the Stuxnet operation against Iran, the cyberattacks against Sony Pictures, and the disruption of the 2016 U.S. presidential election - to make sense of the contemporary technological revolution.
Synthesizing data from government documents, forensic reports of major events, and interviews with senior decision-makers, this important work establishes new theoretical benchmarks to help security experts revise strategy and policy for the unprecedented challenges of our era.
336 pages, Paperback
Published November 15, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 25, 2021
Thought-provoking synthesis on cyber warfare and its theoretical effects on society and international order. A must-read for any poli-sci major but still digestible for non-industry readers.
August 7, 2023
Overall a very good read in a field with a paucity of choices. The author gets a bit ivory-tower academic at times, overplaying criticism of others and likewise overplaying his own man-against-the-machine type. In fact, most of what I read here agrees rather than disagrees with most of what I've read in what little else has been published in the field. It's well-organized and covers germane topics. Once he gets over the professorial peer criticism and fascination with theory for its own sake, he makes tightly-strung together arguments across a number of areas relevant to cyber activity. His focus on "unpeace" as a state between peace and war and normal in today's cyber realm is particularly on point.
He weighs pros and cons for permitting private actors active defense against cyber attacks, but weighs in against in the final analysis. In no other domain are individuals prevented from defending themselves from attack, and I find it breathtaking that he breezily dismisses this in as short a section as he does. He clearly has not reviewed both the moral and practical case thoroughly, or at least he fails to convince the reader he has given the short attention he pays it. A government's "monopoly on violence" is specifically a monopoly on retribution and restitution, since we do not trust individuals to judge their own cases objectively. It claims no monopoly on deterrence or on intervention during an attack, all of which private parties are free to engage in across all other domains. For instance, I can use locks and alarms, I can be alert and look around at my surroundings, and for the most part, I can carry a variety of weapons, all for deterrence. If someone draws a gun on me, no one would convict me of a crime for punching the assailant in the face in self-defense, by way of intervention. However, should I track down an attacker and exact my own brand of justice after the fact of an attack, then I would place myself on the wrong side of the law. That Kello would support eliminating all forms of defense from private parties is a substantial shift from the way our society deals with defense across the board otherwise and requires at least more consideration from Kello.
Anyone interested in cyber warfare, espionage, and/or policy will find this work indispensable. A good read and then some.
He weighs pros and cons for permitting private actors active defense against cyber attacks, but weighs in against in the final analysis. In no other domain are individuals prevented from defending themselves from attack, and I find it breathtaking that he breezily dismisses this in as short a section as he does. He clearly has not reviewed both the moral and practical case thoroughly, or at least he fails to convince the reader he has given the short attention he pays it. A government's "monopoly on violence" is specifically a monopoly on retribution and restitution, since we do not trust individuals to judge their own cases objectively. It claims no monopoly on deterrence or on intervention during an attack, all of which private parties are free to engage in across all other domains. For instance, I can use locks and alarms, I can be alert and look around at my surroundings, and for the most part, I can carry a variety of weapons, all for deterrence. If someone draws a gun on me, no one would convict me of a crime for punching the assailant in the face in self-defense, by way of intervention. However, should I track down an attacker and exact my own brand of justice after the fact of an attack, then I would place myself on the wrong side of the law. That Kello would support eliminating all forms of defense from private parties is a substantial shift from the way our society deals with defense across the board otherwise and requires at least more consideration from Kello.
Anyone interested in cyber warfare, espionage, and/or policy will find this work indispensable. A good read and then some.
March 4, 2018
A good analysis of the immaturity of defining the public policy around “cyber” attacks. An overly dry, densely academic writing style keeps this from being a reasonable primer for a layperson and so the audience is probably sophisticated practitioners either of information security or public policy.
One shocking weakness is the author’s underlying belief that “cyber” attacks can only produce localized social disruption. I’d call it a long-tail risk, but it doesn’t take much imagination to draw a scenario from some of the possibilities defined in this book to a reasonable expectation of regional if not global disruption, a risk that can only increase as more of our reality integrates with information systems.
One shocking weakness is the author’s underlying belief that “cyber” attacks can only produce localized social disruption. I’d call it a long-tail risk, but it doesn’t take much imagination to draw a scenario from some of the possibilities defined in this book to a reasonable expectation of regional if not global disruption, a risk that can only increase as more of our reality integrates with information systems.
January 16, 2020
Good theoretical approach. Although, I disagree with the idea that nongovernmental actors - like terrorist hackers - will present a real threat to the most powerful states. That is of very little importance if compared with what big tech companies can do.
A great book to start incorporating IR notions to the study of the cyber/digital/virtual world.
A great book to start incorporating IR notions to the study of the cyber/digital/virtual world.
January 10, 2018
Excellent treatment of how traditional deterrence approaches conflict and/or compliment the "virtual weapon," among other things. Admittedly I'm approaching this with less IR theory experience than most likely will, but the text was still approachable without being patronizing.
October 5, 2022
This books makes an important contribution to thinking about cybersecurity from an international relations perspective. It's theoretically sophisticated and offers many valuable points about strategy and policy.
October 8, 2017
This book made me understand cyber threats very differently than before. I loved the discussions of historical cases and how they relate to current problems.
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December 15, 2021I thought it was very informative and that you should make a 2nd book to go with it!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews