So much for the end of cyberspace?

Well, I guess I can give up the whole end of cyberspace argument. The Air Force's new mission statement was recently announced to great fanfare:

The mission of the United States Air Force is to deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests -- to fly and fight in Air, Space, and Cyberspace.

Of course, there's no question that electronic warfare-- ranging from attacks on control systems to theft of sensitive information-- is a growing problem. But what strikes me about this mission statement is that it implicitly treats cyberspace as a place-- as a theatre of operations equal to air or space. The desire to localize the threat-- or turn the threat into one that exists somewhere separate from the real world-- is interesting.

More generally, perhaps military thinking about warfare in cyberspace would be worth looking at for this project. The have been several hundred articles on cyberwarfare, and a 2001 book by Gregory Rattray titled Strategic Warfare in Cyberspace, on "strategic information warfare waged via digital means."

And maybe it's just me, but wouldn't "sovereign options" be an excellent name for a band, or perhaps a high-end line of men's accessories?

[To the tune of Marvin Gaye, "God is love," from the album "What's going on". Wasn't Marvin a genius?]

Technorati Tags: cyberspace, military