IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2023 - 51

that is associated with cyberoperations increases the
ethical ambiguity of conflict, erasing any clear ethical
affordances that are typically used to define warfare.
Contemporary conflicts, such as the Azerbaijan-
Armenia War and Russian-Ukraine Wars, exemplify
a new kind of warfare. The Russian-Ukraine War
represents the contemporary embodiment of Total
War as there is little to no differentiation between
the objects, events, and persons that differentiate
warfare from peace. Total warfare is a wholistic
phenomenon and must be considered in terms of
its sociotechnical system. Contemporary Total War
has multiple physical and virtual vectors that can be
exploited, leading to ambiguity.
Here, I Have argued that the use of a TWM has
increased in the security language used in many
nations. The TWM starts with an assumption concerning
the ubiquity of " cyberwar. " Assuming that
state and nonstate actors are in perpetual conflicts,
this presents an inherently oversimplified model
of international relations that can lead to Hobbesian
assumptions of a war of all against all (bellum
omnium contra omnes). It is only by considering how
the metaphors of cyberwar and Total War reduce the
salience of the ethical affordances of warfare that we
can begin to better manage and deescalate conflicts
in an entangled world.

 References
[1] S. P. Rosen, Winning the Next War: Innovation and
the Modern Military. Ithaca, New York, USA: Cornell
University Press, 1991.
[2] " Zero tolerance: More zero-days exploited in
2021 than ever before, " Mandiant, Apr. 21, 2022.
Accessed: Oct. 17, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://
www.mandiant.com/resources/blog/zero-daysexploited-2021
[3]
D. Gentner and F. Maravilla, " Analogical reasoning, "
in The Routledge International Handbook of Thinking
and Reasoning. Evanston, IL, USA: Routledge, 2017,
pp. 186-203.
[4] L. J. Ball and B. T. Christensen, " Analogical reasoning
and mental simulation in design: Two strategies linked
to uncertainty resolution, " Des. Stud., vol. 30, no. 2,
pp. 169-186, 2009.
[5] G. Lakoff, " Metaphor and war: The metaphor system
used to justify war in the Gulf, " Peace Res., vol. 23,
nos. 2-3, pp. 25-32, 1991.
September 2023
[6] Z. Chen and D. Klahr, " Remote transfer of scientificreasoning
and problem-solving strategies in
children, " Adv. Child Develop. Behav., vol. 36, pp.
419-470, Jan. 2008.
[7] R. E. Neustadt and E. R. May, Thinking in Time: The
Uses of History for Decision-Makers. New York, NY,
USA: Simon & Schuster, 1986.
[8] R. Nguyen, " Navigating jus ad bellum in the age
of cyber warfare, " California Law Rev., vol. 101, pp.
1079-1130, 2013.
[9] J. R. Schoenherr and R. Thomson, " Ethical
frameworks for cybersecurity, " in The Frontlines
of Artificial Intelligence Ethics: Human-Centric
Perspectives on Technology's Advance. Evanston, IL,
USA: Routledge, 2022, pp. 141-161.
[10] R. R. Dipert, " Other-than-Internet (OTI) cyberwarfare:
Challenges for ethics, law, and policy, " J. Mil. Ethics,
vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 34-53, 2013.
[11] F. G. Hoffman, " Hybrid warfare and challenges, " in
Strategic Studies. Evanston, IL, USA: Routledge,
2014, pp. 329-337.
[12] B. Renz, " Russia and 'hybrid warfare, " ' Contemp.
Politics, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 283-300, 2016.
[13] R. Wilkie, " Hybrid warfare: Something old, not
something new, " Air Space Power J., vol. 23, no. 4,
pp. 13-18, 2009.
[14] M. Boot, War Made New: Weapons, Warriors, and the
Making of the Modern World. Baltimore, MD, USA:
Penguin, 2006.
[15] M. Evans, " From Kadesh to Kandahar: Military theory
and the future of war, " Nav. War College Rev., vol. 56,
no. 3, pp. 132-150, 2003.
[16] A. C. Lopez, " The evolution of war: Theory and
controversy, " Int. Theory, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 97-139,
2016.
[17] C. R. Ember and M. Ember, " Resource
unpredictability, mistrust, and war: A cross-cultural
study, " J. Conflict Resolution, vol. 36, no. 2, pp.
242-262, 1992.
[18] C. V. Clausewitz, On War. Baltimore, MD, USA:
Penguin, 1968.
[19] D. P. Fry, Beyond War: The Human Potential for
Peace. London, U.K.: Oxford Univ. Press, 2007.
[20] L. Erich, Der Totale Krieg. Munich, Germany:
Ludendorffs Verlag, 1935.
[21] D. A. Bell, The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and
the Birth of Warfare as We Know. Boston, MA, USA:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014.
[22] S. Förster and J. Nagler, On the Road to Total War:
The American Civil War and the German Wars of
51
https://www.mandiant.com/resources/blog/zero-days-exploited-2021 https://www.mandiant.com/resources/blog/zero-days-exploited-2021 https://www.mandiant.com/resources/blog/zero-days-exploited-2021
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2023
