Integration of Cyberspace as Warfighting Domain

The 2004 National Military Strategy of the United States mentioned cyberspace in the context of conventional war fighting domains, it stated, “the Armed Forces must have the ability to operate across the air, land, sea, space and cyberspace domains of the battlespace”.¹ Cyberspace was, however, only explicitly earmarked as fifth warfighting domain in 2006 and defined as “a man-made domain” that is “characterised by the use of electronics and the electromagnetic spectrum to store, modify, and exchange data via networked systems and associated physical infrastructures”.² Thus, 2006 marked the militarisation of cyberspace in the United States and other States have followed since. The notion of cyberspace has remained largely unchanged and has been adopted by other States and institutions.³

1 The Joint Chiefs of Staff, The National Military Strategy of the United States of America: A Strategy for Today; A Vision for Tomorrow (Washington, DC: Office of the Chairman, 2004). p. 18.

2 The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, The National Military Strategy for Cyberspace Operations (Washington, DC: Office of the Chairman, 2006b). p. 3.

3 See for instance: Michael N. Schmitt, Tallinn Manual 2.0 on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Operations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017); The Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joint Publication 3-12 (R): Cyberspace Operations (Washington, D.C.: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2013b). pp. v-vi.