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THE CHANGING STRUCTURE OF WAR IN A CYBER-WORLD AND ITS IMPACT
ON THE INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW
Mohammed Ishmeal
Abstracts
War as a social construct of dominating others to achieve ones interest at the expense of other
in a competitive global community is an enigma to resolve in the discourse of International
Humanitarian Law. Thus, the salience of the transformations of the structure of war in the
midst of the current transition of geopolitics from a unipolar world to a seemingly multi-polar
world reverberate the debate of international law within the domain of cyber technological
weapons, specifically, International Humanitarian Law. This has raised many questions in the
application of international humanitarian law in a world where electromagnet weapons, cyber
weapons and high-tech defensive system are developed to counter enemy attack. This paper
discuss the changing nature of war in a cyber-world bringing to bear its impact on the
International Humanitarian Law. The paper posits that with the fast changes in war strategy
and cyber oriented weaponry, an improved sophisticated and inclusive laws with a stronger
institutional backing must be developed considering the socio-cultural and technological ideas
of countries to increase the level of compliance.
Key Words: International Humanitarian law (IHL), armed conflict, structure of war, law of
war. Cyberspace, Cyber technology, Cyber weapons.
INTRODUCTION
War has always instill fear in men whether the brave or weak men. This fear and out of
necessity to win and survived in this competitive struggle of the anarchic world has pushed
man to design weapons, strategies, sometimes in the forms of alliance to maintain his
dominance and defend his existence. However, throughout history there has always been laws
which governs and regulate every battle whether economic, political, religious or ideological
battle. As a result, depending on the period these laws have evolved in time of space and
PhD candidate at Selcuk University in the Department of International Relation, Konya, Turkey. Contact @
blkqatari@gmail.com
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period of many civilization which had grace the world. From the great Egyptian, Kush,
Assyrians, Mesopotamia, Aztec, Hindus Valley, Carthaginian, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines
civilization battles to the religious battles of Israelites, the age of Christian crusaders and the
Islamic Jihadist from the time of the prophet Muhammad (P.BUH).
The Crusaders and the Turkish Ottoman Empire wars and the subsequence dominance of the
Empires which historians have referred to as “gunpowder empire” which included those of
the Safavid Empire of Persia, the Mughal Empire in India, the Russian State, Spain and the
Spanish New World(Braden, 2014:21-31), the British and French imperial ambitions in
Africa. The gun powder technology was the beginning of western power that also ushered in
United States of America in the 20th century who later developed highly technological
weapons of dominance into the first decade of the 21st century. The 21st century ushered in a
new development not only improved nuclear weapons, but also cyber-technological weapons,
namely, Laser and hypersonic weapons, unmanned aerial vehicles, directed-energy weapons,
lethal autonomous robots, defensive systems, and electromagnetic weapons.
The expansion of states armies and the development of complex coalition and allies circle to
wage war against enemy combatant has changed the nature and structure of war where old
rules that regulate wars are no more binding. This means that the laws of armed conflicts
applications in some instance during war is not applicable during war.
Another fundamental change of war is the rise of actors such as terrorist groups, the
employment of proxy forces by world powers and the hiring of mercenaries and private
military and security companies in a growing military industrial world worth billions of
dollars. Obviously this have enormous impact on the existing International Humanitarian Law
(IHL). Although the law has not been perfect and totally applied, accepted and adhered to
much to our expectations due to relativity of culture as agued by some scholars, yet in some
instances it applications have saved millions of human life(Loc.gov, 2018). As the Dagombas
will argue Kpaha chara so dundo ya’aw that a “wretched door is better than empty door”1
.
This philosophical proverb simple emphasized the fact that the law might not fulfill global
community expectations totally, however, its existence is better for humanity. In the words of
Louise 1979:
1
This is a Dagomba philosophy. Dagomba is an ethnic group in the northern region of Ghana, West Africa. The
Dagomba call their homeland Dagbon.
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The most important principle of law today is commonly observed: nations have not been
going to war, unilateral uses of force have been only occasional, brief, limited. Even the
uncertain law against intervention, seriously breached in several instances, has undoubtedly
deterred intervention in many other instances. Where political law has not deterred action it
has often postponed or limited action or determined a choice among alternative actions(Louis,
1979:25-26).
From the above introduction, it is patent that the structure and nature of war has change with
the intense geopolitics in a wider context of cyberspace amidst development of highly
technological weapons and the changing forces of actors in events of war and peace. It stands
to argue that the International Humanitarian Law is bound to be changed either directly or
indirectly. Thus, the central purpose of this paper is to discuss the changes of the structure of
war and it impact on the International Humanitarian Law. The paper evaluates the theoretical
framework and review literature around the subject of enquiry. The paper further elaborates
the historical development of international humanitarian law. And follows up with current
changes and developments that seem to make application of International Humanitarian Law
difficult drawing examples from past and current events. Finally, the paper conclude with
looking beyond the challenges of international humanitarian law with a summary of events
and recommendations discuss in the paper. The paper uses the term International
Humanitarian Law, and the Law of Armed Conflict or War interchangeable as they are also
use in most research to mean the same thing.
THEORETICAL FRAME WORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW
The academic discourse of war and law generates a very interesting theories which dates back
to ancient times. During the internal armed conflict in Rome in a forceful argument defending
the acts of Milo, Cicero pleaded, “... silent enim leges inter armeda.”(ICRC, 2018). Allenby
recently went further to argue that the idea of law governing war produces three theories. First
could be attributed to the realist view that the idea of law governing war is a mistake and
therefore must be disregarded since states will do anything to protect their national interest
and whatever means used to achieve such target is legitimate and permissible.
Realist assume that in a world of anarchy where every man’s hand is against each other, state
are selfish and very inward to protect their national interest. The second group of theorists