https://www.lawfareblog.com/cyber-commands-strategy-risks-friction-allies
By Max Smeets
Lawfare
May 28, 2019
Much has been written about the fundamental changes in U.S. cyber strategy.
U.S. Cyber Command’s vision of “persistent engagement” and the Department of
Defense’s new strategy of “defend forward” have, in particular, led to numerous
critical remarks about the risks of escalation between the U.S. and its main
adversaries in cyberspace.
These debates are worth continuing, including about what the change in strategy
means for establishing norms in cyberspace. But commentators have so far
ignored a key dimension: The strategy’s main implications may not reside in how
it changes the dynamics between the U.S. and its adversaries but, instead, in
how it affects broader alliance relationships, especially beyond the Five Eyes
(Australia, Canada, the U.K., the U.S. and New Zealand). U.S. Cyber Command’s
mission to cause friction in adversaries’ freedom of maneuver in cyberspace may
end up causing significant friction in allies’ trust and confidence—and
adversaries may be able to exploit that.
Operating “Seamlessly, Globally, and Continuously”
Cyber Command’s new strategy seeks to operate “seamlessly, globally, and
continuously.” It states that “[s]uperiority through persistence seizes and
maintains the initiative in cyberspace by continuously engaging and contesting
adversaries and causing them uncertainty wherever they maneuver.” According to
the strategy document, Cyber Command intends to do this “as close as possible
to adversaries and their operations,” connecting persistent engagement to the
Pentagon’s principle of “defending forward.”
In an article for Joint Force Quarterly (JFQ), NSA Director and Cyber Command
head Gen. Paul Nakasone writes: “We must instead maneuver seamlessly across the
interconnected battlespace, globally, as close as possible to adversaries and
their operations, and continuously shape the battlespace to create operational
advantage for us while denying the same to our adversaries.”
[...]
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