The Requirements to Develop a Cyber Force

Max Smeets

2019 - 2022

Being a scholar in cyber security is not for the faint hearted. To remain at the frontier of the rapid developments in cyber conflict, researchers have to keep pace. As a result, much of the literature has charged ahead to assess the coercive ability of cyber effect operations, to explore the influence of norms in why a state may or may not conduct an operation and to compare the intelligence versus military potential of the cyber domain. This scholarship helps to explain the puzzling phenomenon of why we see so few states conducting cyber effect operations.

This project takes a step back, taking time to reflect on an overlooked and fundamental assumption: are states actually able to conduct operations in the first place? This research endeavor reveals that states are barely able to field a military cyber-force.