Information Warfare in the Age of Cyber Conflict

This book examines the shape, sources and dangers of information warfare (IW) as it pertains to military, diplomatic and civilian stakeholders.

Cyber warfare and information warfare are different beasts. Both concern information, but where the former does so exclusively in its digitized and operationalized form, the latter does so in a much broader sense: with IW, information itself is the weapon. The present work aims to help scholars, analysts and policymakers understand IW within the context of cyber conflict. Specifically, the chapters in the volume address the shape of influence campaigns waged across digital infrastructure and in the psychology of democratic populations in recent years by belligerent state actors, from the Russian Federation to the Islamic Republic of Iran. In marshalling evidence on the shape and evolution of IW as a broad-scoped phenomenon aimed at societies writ large, the authors in this book present timely empirical investigations into the global landscape of influence operations, legal and strategic analyses of their role in international politics, and insightful examinations of the potential for democratic process to overcome pervasive foreign manipulation.

This book will be of much interest to students of cybersecurity, national security, strategic studies, defence studies and International Relations in general.

Christopher Whyte is an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.

A. Trevor Thrall is Associate Professor in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, USA, and a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, USA.

Brian M. Mazanec is a researcher of cyber conflict, strategic warfare, and intelligence and teaches in the Department of Defense and Strategic Studies at Missouri State University, USA, and in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, USA.