The prospect of cyber war has evolved from science fiction and doomsday depictions on television, in films and novels to reality and front page news. Despite the growing prominence of cyber threats, international law does relatively little to regulate cyber conflict. The language and structure of IHL and of the UN Charter present considerable analytic challenges in attempting to fit cyber into the conventional framework for armed conflict. This chapter first reviews and assesses the historical and contemporary normative justifications for cyber conflict, and then outlines the components of future cyber conflict norms.
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