Reflections on the Concept of Cyberwar and the Contributions of the International Community in the Peaceful Use of Cyberspace

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze the concept of “cyber warfare” by contrasting it with the concept of warfare to identify the problems that international law faces to regulate, punish, and prevent cyberattacks committed by States against other States either by affecting their critical infrastructure or by stealing top secret information. We emphasize the contributions of some scholars and the Group Governmental Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in Context of International Security regarding the States’ obligations to promote the peaceful use of cyberspace and prevent cyber warfare and headline on some States’ contributions such as France, and its Paris Call for Trust and Security in cyberspace. Thus, making use of documentary analysis and the inductive-deductive method, the first results were that there is a lack of consensus on the concept of cyberwar, although its use has become popular. Furthermore, elements of jus ad bellum and jus contra bellum are neither clear nor forceful to explain cyberattacks perpetrated against States. In other words, international law on the use of force and the law on the prevention of war is diluted in the digital environment, which allows us to conclude that the law of armed conflict, as we currently know it, does not conform to the digital environment. Until now, there is no international law that can promote the peaceful use of cyberspace and States are facing their own setbacks in this regard.

Keywords

• war
• cybercrime
• cyber peace
• cyberwar
• cyber armies
• weapons