Wars in Cyberspace : the recasting of military power in the digital age

Abstract

In the last three decades, the expansion of what has been coined cyberspace led to the production of plenty of bold statements about the likely implications for International Relations theories. Because of this technological trend, scholars tended to assert that traditional concepts of geopolitics like territories, borders were to become outmoded. Some argued that the power of pace was outstripping the value of place and consequently geographies were increasingly dimensionalized by speed, not territory. Contrary to these beliefs, this paper would show how States more particularly the USA - are now on the brink of nationalizing cyberspace. As such, the increasing military use of the electronic sphere proves that this is less a Copernican revolution in international relations than a refinement of military spatial organization. Cyberspace does alter the old geopolitics but it does not replace it. Therefore our aim is to shed light on the contemporary cognitive processes and institutional patterns which are driving national armed forces to frame cyberspace in a manner not dissimilar than with the air domain sixty years ago.