Cyber War Will Not Take Place
4. Mai 2011
Vortrag im Rahmen des Konstanzer Kulturwissenschaftlichen Kolloquiums
Dr. Thomas Rid (Konstanz/London)
Moderation: Martin Zapfe
In the mid-1930s, inspired by the lead-up to the First World War, the French dramatist Jean Giraudoux wrote a famous play, La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu, the Trojan War will not take place. The piece was an ironic critique of the inevitable catastrophe. Today the world seems to be facing another 1935-moment: “Cyberwar Is Coming!” boasted the RAND Corporation in 1993. By 2010, the Pentagon had “formally recognized cyberspace as a new domain of warfare.” But is it? Are the Cassandras of cyber warfare on the right side of history? Is cyberwar really coming?
Rid argues that cyberwar has never happened in the past. That cyberwar does not take place in the present. And that cyberwar is unlikely in the future. Instead, all cyber attacks resemble three activities that are as old as warfare itself.
Dr Thomas Rid, currently fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study Konstanz, will be a Reader in War Studies at King’s College London. In 2009/2010, Rid was a visiting scholar at the Hebrew University and the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. From 2006 to 2009 he worked at the Woodrow Wilson Center and the RAND Corporation in Washington, and at the Institut français des relations internationales in Paris. Rid wrote his first book and thesis at the Berlin-based Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Germany’s major government-funded foreign policy think tank. Rid published three books, Understanding Counterinsurgency (Routledge 2010, co-edited with Tom Keaney), War 2.0 (Praeger 2009, with Marc Hecker), and War and Media Operations (Routledge 2007).
Mi, 4. Mai 2011, 18 Uhr s.t.
Universität Konstanz, Raum Y 311
Kontakt
Simon Riedle simon.riedle[at]uni-konstanz.de