Nuclear cyberwar and crisis management

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe political and military dexterity required for nuclear crisis management during the Cold War was sufficiently stressful for policymakers and military advisors. Even more uncertain is the information environment of the twenty-first century and the “second nuclear age” with respect to its implications for the use of nuclear forces in coercive bargaining. Nuclear crisis management requires a degree of transparency about ongoing military operations and political maneuvers and, in addition, a certain amount of mutually shared trust in the negotiating process itself. Cyberwar undertaken by disputants before or during a nuclear crisis could introduce additional uncertainty and doubt into the reciprocal process of bargaining for an agreed settlement short of war.