On Information Warfare: A Response to Taddeo

Philosophy & Technology 26, No. 2 (2013): 221-225

9 Pages Posted: 6 Jul 2012 Last revised: 19 May 2013

Date Written: 2013

Abstract

Mariarosario Taddeo’s recent article, ‘Information Warfare: A Philosophical Perspective’ (2012) is a welcome addition to the literature on information communications technologies (ICTs) and warfare, originating as it does from beyond the epistemological walls of the communities of security practitioners and security academics who ordinarily dominate debate on the informational ways and means deployed in the pursuit of strategic political ends. She is correct to assert the shift of warfare ‘toward the non-physical domain’, such that ‘the boundaries of reality stretch to include non-physical objects, actions and interactions as well as physical ones’, and interrogates the ethical implications of the ‘new modes of warfare […] being developed specifically for deployment in such a new environment’. In this short response, I wish to draw attention to two issues arising from the article. The first concerns the applicability of ‘information warfare’ terminology to current military and political discourse, on account of its relative lack of use in the contemporary context. The second is a short examination of the political and ethical implications of treating ICT environments as a ‘domain’, with its obvious ramifications for the pursuit of ‘dominion’, particularly through military action.

Keywords: information technology, information warfare, ethics, dominion, war

Suggested Citation

Stevens, Tim, On Information Warfare: A Response to Taddeo (2013). Philosophy & Technology 26, No. 2 (2013): 221-225, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2100765

Tim Stevens (Contact Author)

King's College London ( email )

Strand
London, WC2R 2LS
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/dr-tim-stevens

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