When Does a Act of Information Warfare Become an Act of War? Ambiguity in Perception

Abstract

There is no clear-cut point where information operations can cross over to become the decisive point leading to the start of armed conflict. The use of information operations by nations and individuals could have a significant impact on the public opinion, and, by extension, on the leaders of a nation. Traditional acts of war have been directed towards events that influence a nation's access to, use of, or benefit from land. How these concepts may be extended to information, either historical (archived or stored) or real-time (systems in use), is problematic at best. This paper addresses how information "warfare" may be interpreted by nations and private citizens in this context.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 07, 1998
Accession Number
ADA345572

Entities

People

  • Mark B. Treadwell

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Cyber
  • Electronic Warfare
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Communications Intelligence
  • Department Of Defense
  • Economic Security
  • Information Operations
  • Information Warfare
  • Interagency Coordination
  • International Law
  • Law
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Operations Security
  • Psychological Operations
  • Second World War
  • United States
  • United States Government
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Geospatial Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence Analytics
  • Strategic Security Studies