Defending Forward: Seizing the Initiative in Cyberspace Below the Level of Armed Conflict

Abstract

The United States recognizes the strategic and economic importance of the cyberspace domain for advancing and securing its national interests. Despite efforts to deter malicious cyberspace activities, the United States continues to face and suffer countless cyberspace attacks from state and nonstate actors at a threshold below the level of armed conflict often referred to as the "gray zone." This research study examines how the United States can build a whole of society approach to leverage interagency, the private sector, local government, academia, and coalition partners' cyberspace capabilities and authorities. The purpose of the whole of society approach is to proactively execute joint operations in order to compete and contest against adversaries in cyberspace across the conflict continuum. A qualitative analysis of existing joint interagency models lends to providing a solution for a cohesive unified action for countering malicious cyberspace activities below the level of armed conflict.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 14, 2019
Accession Number
AD1105247

Entities

People

  • Daniel S. Yoon

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Combatant Commanders
  • Cyberattacks
  • Cyberspace Operations
  • Employment
  • Interagency Coordination
  • International Law
  • International Relations
  • Military Force Levels
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Organizational Structure
  • Personnel Management
  • Political Systems
  • United States Southern Command
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Political Violence and Terrorism Studies.

Technology Areas

  • Cyber
  • Cyber - Legality in Cyberspace