Abstract

Are cyber-enabled information warfare (IW) campaigns uniquely threatening when compared with traditional influence operations undertaken by state actors? Or is the recent “hacking” of Western democracies simply old wine in new—but fundamentally similar—bottles? This article draws on classical theories of democratic functionality from the political science and communications studies fields to deconstruct the aims and effects of cyber-enabled IW. I describe democracies as information systems wherein the moderating functions of democratic discourse and policy deliberation rely on robust mechanisms for asserting the credibility, origination, and quality of information. Whereas the institutions of democracy are often compromised in ways that force failures of the system’s moderating dynamics, influence operations in the digital age act to subvert the traditional mechanisms of democratic functionality in new ways. Sophisticated digital age information operations create a multifaceted attribution challenge to the target state that amounts to unprecedented uncertainty about the nature and scope of the threat. However, the promise of cyber-enabled IW capabilities emerges more from the rewiring of modern democratic information environments around new media platforms than it does from the cyber conflict faculties of state actors. Rather, cyber operations act as an adjunct modifier of IW abilities that allow belligerent governments to secure new sources of private information, to divert attention from other pillars of IW campaigns, to compromise the capabilities of domestic counterintelligence assets and to tacitly coerce important members of society.

中文翻译：

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网络冲突还是民主“被砍死”？网络运营如何增强信息战

摘要

与国家行为者进行的传统影响力行动相比，具有网络功能的信息战（IW）运动是否具有独特的威胁性？还是最近对西方民主国家的“黑客攻击”仅仅是使用新的但基本相似的瓶装旧葡萄酒？本文借鉴了政治学和传播学领域的民主功能的经典理论，以解构基于网络的IW的目标和效果。我将民主制度描述为信息系统，其中民主话语和政策审议的调节功能依赖于健全的机制来断言信息的可信度，来源和质量。鉴于民主制度常常以迫使该系统缓和动力失败的方式受到损害，数字时代的影响力行动以新的方式颠覆了民主功能的传统机制。复杂的数字时代信息操作对目标状态造成了多方面的归属挑战，这给威胁的性质和范围带来了前所未有的不确定性。但是，启用网络的IW功能的希望更多地是通过在新媒体平台周围重新构建现代民主信息环境而实现的，而不是来自国家行为者的网络冲突学院。相反，网络运营可作为IW能力的辅助改进器，使交战国政府能够获得新的私人信息来源，将注意力从IW活动的其他支柱转移出去，