Chapter

The rise of non-state actors in cyberwarfare

Nicolò Bussolati

Cyberwar : law and ethics for virtual conflicts

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2015

p. 102-126

English

This article focuses on the rise of non-state actors in cyberwarfare and its impact on international law as they can operate either alongside or against state actors. The first part of this article considers how digital technologies stimulated an increasing role for non-state actors in the international system, accelerating the demise of the state as primary actor of international law. Moreover, through his analysis, the author examines the classification of non-state actors, their present and future role in cyberwarfare, their relationship with states and their particular structures and modus operandi. The second part evaluates the challenges to international law posed by the non-state actors’ involvement in this new paradigm of warfare. The author points out that the digitalization of war strongly enhances the role and the capacity of non-state actors involved, and offers them structural and operative characteristics which deeply challenge the traditional corpus of norms regulating conflicts (international humanitarian law). At the same time, it complicates the attribution of the act and the ability of the state to respond to the threat under the law of self-defense. According to the author, these challenges must be resolved, possibly through a reinterpretation of the relevant norms of international law in light of the peculiarities of cyberwarfare. [Summary by students at the International Criminal and Humanitarian Law Clinic, Laval University]

• Full text (restricted access : ICRC)

• Cyberwar : law and ethics for virtual conflicts / ed. by Jens David Ohlin, Kevin Govern, Claire Finkelstein