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8 ISJLP 321 (2012-2013)
Cyberspace Is Not a Warfighting Domain

handle is hein.journals/isjlpsoc8 and id is 326 raw text is: I/S: A JOURNAL OF LAW AND POLICY FOR THE INFORMATION SOCIETY
Cyberspace Is Not a Warfighting Domain
MARTIN C. LIBICKI*
Like everyone else who is or has been in a US military
uniform, I think of cyber as a domain. It is now enshrined in
doctrine: land, sea, air, space, cyber. It trips off the tongue,
and frankly I have found the concept liberating when I think
about operationalizing this domain. But the other domains
are natural, created by God, and this one is the creation of
man. Man can actually change this geography, and anything
that happens there actually creates a change in someone's
physical space. Are these differences important enough for us
to rethink our doctrine?
General Michael V. Hayden,
USAF, Retiredi
In the beginning was the land domain; with the discovery of
flotation came the sea domain. A century ago, the air domain was
added to the list; a half-century ago, the space domain was added as
well. Within the last quarter-century, the combination of ubiquitous
networking and universal digitization has given rise to cyberspace, the
newest addition to the growing family of domains. Cyberspace, we are
*Martin Libicki is a senior management scientist at the RAND Corporation. His research
focuses on the impacts of information technology on domestic and national security.
Libicki recievied his Ph.D. in economics and M.A. in city and regional planning from the
University of California, Berkeley, and his S.B. in mathematics from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
1 Michael V. Hayden, The Future of Things Cyber, 5 STRATEGIC STUD. Q. 3,4(2011),
available at http://http://ww w.au.af.mil/au/ssq/2o11/spring/hayden.pdf.
2By contrast with cyberspace, which is considered a domain and which, as a domain, is
headed by a full general, radio-frequency spectrum, the control over which nations have
sparred over since 1940, is not considered a domain. Even through far more money is
spent on electronic warfare equipment than in cyberwar equipment, in no Service does the

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