Ethics and Cyber Warfare: The Quest for Responsible Security in the Age of Digital Warfare, by George Lucas

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Acknowledgements

I thank James Cook, George Lucas, and Jonathan Milgrim for helpful comments on this review. There was a panel discussion on Professor Lucas’s book at the annual meeting of the International Society for Military Ethics (2017) and I thank Professor Lucas for participating, as well as the other respondents, Michael Gross and Valerie Morkevicius, for a stimulating session. Finally, Professor Lucas joined my class on Ethics of Emerging Weapons Technologies – co-taught with Maj. Gen. Robert Latiff (ret.) – at the University of Notre Dame to discuss his book; I thank him for joining us and the students for their discussion.

Notes

1 See, for example Allhoff, Henschke, and Strawser (2016). Lucas’s chapter in that book (“Emerging Norms for Cyberwarfare” in Allhoff, Henschke, and Strawser 2016, 13–34) foreshadows his more complete views in the present project.

2 Page references, when not otherwise noted, are to the book under review.

3 Professor Lucas likes to jokingly thank “his PR person, Russian President Vladimir Putin” for catalyzing interest in the topics covered in the book, even if the book was already in press as these events unfolded.

4 See, for example, Balendra (2008), referenced in Lucas’s book on p. 31. See also Ruys (2010).

5 See also Singer and Friedman (2013, 120–121).

6 See, for example, Allhoff and Jenkins (2014).

7 David Rodin (personal communication, 22 May 2014).

8 See, for example, Partnoy (2012).

9 Again, there are clearly resources available for the defender of such an account to construe, for example, an attack on the stock market as “damage to […] objects in the real world.” It is just not clear to me what work “real world” is meant to be doing here – is the cyberrealm, as it were, not part of the real world? Regardless, rather than work on interpretive issues within the definition, we can just as easily jettison it for something that fits more naturally.

Additional information

Funding

I thank the National Science Foundation for generously supporting this research under award #1317798 (“Developing a Normative Framework for Cyberwarfare”).