Humanitarian Law: Developing International Rules for the Digital Battlefield

Abstract

As the technological revolution in military affairs continues to unfold, some of the more promising emerging capabilities focus on attacking an opponent's critical networked or linked computer systems. Computer warfare lies at the uncomfortable intersection between the use of force and non‐forcible influence. Exposing this seam introduces new methods for accomplishing critical national security missions. International lawyers, concerned with developing rules that ameliorate suffering and reduce the humanitarian impact of international conflict, have struggled to come to grips with information warfare. This article offers an effects‐based legal model for such attacks by focusing on the impact of an attack on civilian populations. Departing from much of the conventional thought on information warfare, this article proposes a construct centred on the humanitarian dimension – how might computer warfare limit unnecessary suffering and reduce civilian casualties? This article explores the dynamic of information warfare operations, and juxtaposes the technological capabilities against the principles of the laws of war to construct an effects‐based legal paradigm to govern offensive information operations. Properly controlled, information warfare may prove to be an effective means of coercion that is more adept at insulating civilians from many of the catastrophic dangers inherent in kinetic warfare.