Leiden University Student Repository

Valk (2022)

The Moral Limits of Cyberwarfare: How Should States Respond to Cyber-Attacks?

Master thesis | Philosophy (MA) (60 EC)

ABSTRACT: This thesis engages with the question: how should states deal with information warfare? To begin with, this question will be discussed from the perspective of Just War Theory. The analysis will demonstrate that solely the jus in bello category of JWT, as opposed to jus ad bellum, is relevant for information warfare. Furthermore, scholar alternative ethical framework designed by Taddeo will be critiqued. According to Taddeo, the application of Just War Theory to information warfare causes a problem because physical harm and harm in the cyber domain are in different ontological domains. Her theory strives for ontological equality by merging information ethics with Just War Theory. However, our analysis will show that the resulting theory is unsatisfactory in several ways. As an alternative, I will suggest to distinguish four categories of harm and six forms of information warfare. These forms of information warfare can be associated with the categories of harm in order to...Show moreABSTRACT: This thesis engages with the question: how should states deal with information warfare? To begin with, this question will be discussed from the perspective of Just War Theory. The analysis will demonstrate that solely the jus in bello category of JWT, as opposed to jus ad bellum, is relevant for information warfare. Furthermore, scholar alternative ethical framework designed by Taddeo will be critiqued. According to Taddeo, the application of Just War Theory to information warfare causes a problem because physical harm and harm in the cyber domain are in different ontological domains. Her theory strives for ontological equality by merging information ethics with Just War Theory. However, our analysis will show that the resulting theory is unsatisfactory in several ways. As an alternative, I will suggest to distinguish four categories of harm and six forms of information warfare. These forms of information warfare can be associated with the categories of harm in order to determine to what extent jus in bello is suitable to assess the justifiability of IW attacks by looking at their consequences.Show less

Just War Theory Cyberwarfare Information Warfare Harm

Author

Valk

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

PPE

Supervisors

Prof. Dr. T.R. Wells

ECTS Credits

60

Language

en