Date
Fall 2022
Type of Culminating Activity
Student research paper
Abstract
Conflict is constantly evolving, and it is evolving even faster now that the world finds itself in an age where information travels at the speed of light. Scholars of military doctrine and generational warfare are currently pondering the effects of cyber warfare on the already hectic and confusing fourth generation battlespace. Invariably, generals, pundits and politicians alike in countries across the world vie to acquire these “capabilities” for their benefit and the benefit of their nation. The last time a cutting-edge advance in kinetic weaponry was made in the form of the atomic bomb, hundreds of thousands of civilian lives were taken before the international community agreed to avoid employing it even during wartime. I believe the threat posed by theorized full-spectrum cyber warfare is equally as destructive, but also insidious. In the future, military operations may rage through civilian networks. Self-driving vehicles with innocent occupants might be turned into road borne missiles for the benefit of a military commander on the other side of the globe. Strange political and social movements with no clear origin might threaten democracies around the world. Contagious messages designed to arouse the fear and hatred endemic to every human heart could envelope social media and plunge nations into war, peoples into bitter violence, and shatter ancient communities into warring factions. But I believe that unlike our progenitors -armed with Uranium warheads but with 19th century ethics- we can prevent this new evolution of warfare from causing even a paper cut. Much of the technology and concepts I will touch on also have the ability to be used to enhance our lives without being integrated into weaponry at all. I propose that the audience of this paper take it as an invitation to enhance their knowledge of the dangers posed by the defense complexes of modern nations, and to mobilize human and material resources to affect change legislatively to limit the propagation and proliferations of these new tools of destruction.
Degree Program
Bachelor of Applied Science
Mentors
Margaret Sass, J.D., Ed.D.