GUEST EDITORS

Ludovica Glorioso (NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence)

INTRODUCTION

In the age of the so-called information revolution, the ability to control, disrupt or manipulate the enemy’s information infrastructure has become as decisive as weapon superiority with respect to determining the outcome of conflicts. So much so that the Pentagon defines cyberspace as a new domain in which war is waged, alongside land, sea, air and space.

Cyber conflicts, as part of a state’s defensive or offensive strategy, are a fast growing phenomenon, which is rapidly changing the dynamics of combat as well as the role that warfare plays in political negotiations and the life of civil societies. Such changes are not the exclusive concern of the military. They also have a significant bearing on ethicists and policymakers, since existing ethical theories of war, together with national and international regulations, struggle to address the novelties of this phenomenon. The issue could not be more pressing and there is a much felt and fast escalating need to share information and coordinate ethical theorising about cyber conflicts.

This special issue of Springer’s Philosophy & Technology (http://www.springer.com/13347) follows the organization of the international workshop on Ethics of Cyber Conflict (http://www.ccdcoe.org/428.html), held on November 21-22, 2013 at the Centro Alti Studi per la Difesa (CASD) with the support of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence.

TOPICS

We solicit the submission of papers that investigate issues concerning the way ICTs are affecting our ethical views of conflicts and warfare, as well as the analysis of just-war principles in the light of the dissemination of cyber conflicts; humanitarian military interventions based on ICTs; whether preventive acts of cyber war may satisfy jus-ad-bellum criteria; challenges of upholding jus-in-bello standards in cyber warfare, especially in asymmetric conflicts; attribution and proportionality of the response to cyber attacks; moral permissibility of automated responses and ethical deployment of military robotic weapons.

TIMETABLE

April 1, 2014: Deadline papers submissions

May 1, 2014: Deadline reviews papers

June 1, 2014: Deadline revised papers

2015: Publication of the special issue

SUBMISSION DETAILS

To submit a paper for this special issue, authors should go to the journal’s Editorial Manager http://www.editorialmanager.com/phte/

The author (or a corresponding author for each submission in case of co- authored papers) must register into EM.

The author must then select the special article type: “Special issue on The Ethics of Cyber Conflicts” from the selection provided in the submission process. This is needed in order to assign the submissions to the Guest Editors.

Submissions will then be assessed according to the following procedure:

New Submission => Journal Editorial Office => Guest Editor(s) => Reviewers => Reviewers’ Recommendations => Guest Editor(s)’ Recommendation => Editor-in- Chief’s Final Decision => Author Notification of the Decision.

The process will be reiterated in case of requests for revisions.

For any further information please contact:

Ludovica Glorioso, ludovica.glorioso@ccdcoe.org