Lecture 6

Question 1

Definition alliance

Answer 1

-“A formal or informal relationship of security cooperation
between two or more sovereign states” (Walt 1987, 1).
- Alliances….produce additional security quickly
but with less reliability and at the political cost of
moderating conflicting interests with the prospective
ally.

Question 2

Pros and cons of alliances

Answer 2

Useful as a part of many kinds of strategies, e.g. containment,
deterrence, also limited and total war
But come with inherent dangers
Chain-ganging: “[State(s)] dragged into war in order to save reckless
allies.”
Buck-passing: “[State(s)] allow others to bear the burden of halting the
rise of a state that threatens to gain hegemony” (Morrow 1993, 207).

Question 3

Theory of alliance formation = Balance of power

Answer 3

states ally to aggregate power to confront a more powerful state (e.g.
Waltz 1979). If no possible alliance exists that can balance a very powerful
state, states “bandwagon” by allying with that powerful state

Question 4

Theory of alliance formation = balance of threat

Answer 4

raw power per se does not endanger states’ security, but rather threats (due
to geographic proximity, ideology, etc.). Therefore, states ally to balance
against threat rather than against power (Walt 1987)

Question 5

Theory of alliance formation = domestic affinity

Answer 5

“States will tend to ally with states whose political orientations are similar to
their own” (e.g., Walt 1987)

Question 6

Why do some alliances last longer than others?

Answer 6

1. Shifts in distribution of power
2. Changes in threat posed by a state/states
3. Regime type
   - How stable are public preferences ?
   - To what extent is there continuity of national leadership?
   - Alliances among liberal democracies, may be “especially strong and
   resilient” (WM, 273, quoting Gaubatz 1996)
4. Institutionalization
   - Creation of organizations, bureaucracies, which on their own try to
   survive into the future, lobby, manage change, etc.
   - Institutional capacity allows alliance to shift to address new threats
   when the original reason for the alliance is no longer present
5. Socialization
   - Contact between elites (regular summits, conferences, etc.)
   - Formal cooperation between personnel from member government
   (secondment, etc.)
   - Attempts at creating sense of community among elites and across the
   publics of the alliance

Question 7

Defining cyberspace

Answer 7

Items “based on or dependent on computing and communications
technology; the information that these artifacts use, store,
handle, or process; and the interconnections among these various
elements” (US National Academy of Sciences 2014, 8; quoted in
WM)

Question 8

Cyber as a prefix

Answer 8

“cyber” as a prefix denotes anything associated with
cyberspace; bottom line, “technology infrastructures” that
deal with “electronic information (data) processing” (CCDCOE
2017; quoted in WM).

Question 9

Actors in cyberspace

Answer 9

States
Non-state actors
Proxy actors
Corporations
Private individuals

Question 10

Actions * aka Computer Network Operations

Answer 10

Defense
Exploitation
Attack

Question 11

Varieties of cyber attacks

Answer 11

Denial of service (DoS) and distributed denial of service (DDoS)
Malware (including ransomware, worms)
Phishing and spear phishing

Question 12

Evolution in cyber attacks

Answer 12

From states as “primary,” even “exclusive” actors to non-state
actors playing key roles too; influence of technology in this shift
From emphasis on exploitation to disruption of public and private
resources
Capacity for “weaponized” attacks that damage or destroy
physical infrastructure and potentially result in loss of life
A new concern: AI and the role of chatbots

Question 13

Attribution as a problem (confronting cyber attacks)

Answer 13

Not fundamentally different from non-cyber attacks, but evidence tends to be
almost exclusively circumstantial
Given the nature of the evidence, tricky to convince audiences (attacker; public)
that the authority doing the attribution knows attacker’s identity

Question 14

Developing international legal norms: the Tallin manual (confronting cyber attacks)

Answer 14

Cyber attacks can be treated as acts of war “if [they cause] harm to individuals
or damage to property equivalent to the use of force” (WM).
States “are responsible for cyber attacks” carried out by non-state actors
based “within their borders if the state is aware of them or [they[ act under [the
state’s] direction” (WM).

Question 15

Cyberwar

Answer 15

Information has always been an essential
part of warfare
Information includes communications for
command and control; reconnaissance and
intelligence collection on the enemy

Question 16

Alternative approach cyber war

Answer 16

An alternative approach, developed
starting in the late 1990s, emphasizes using
cybertechnology and networked
organizational structures to achieve “an
information edge over adversary military
forces in battle” (Arquilla 2011)
The war in Ukraine has become a testing
ground, including uses of AI for these
purposes

Question 17

What is the strategic attack paradigm

Answer 17

During the Cold War, information viewed as
a strategic domain that could potentially be
weaponized for massive, strategic effect
The “strategic attack paradigm”
emphasized to this day, particularly given
concerns about critical infrastructure (cyber
attacks) and influence operations (gray
zone)