Fighting a War without using Violence

Original title of the PhD thesis, which was written in Dutch (and is currently not available in English)

On Thursday, 24 October 2019, ACIL / LACMO PhD researcher Bart van den Bosch will defend his PhD thesis entitled ‘Fighting a War without using Violence: A study of the rules of International Humanitarian Law regulating military cyber operations below the threshold of attack’.

Abstract

In International Humanitarian Law (IHL), the majority of the rules are formulated around attacks. Attacks are defined as acts of violence traditionally aimed at physical injury or destruction. IHL is relatively silent on military operations below the threshold of attack. Military cyberoperations however can have a major impact during an armed conflict on both the adversary and the general public without having physical effects. To be able to operate in compliance with IHL this research fixes the threshold of (cyber)attacks and determines what rules apply to military cyberoperations below that threshold.

Military cyberoperations can have a major impact during an armed conflict on both the adversary and the general public without having physical effects.

The final conclusion is that IHL also regulates military (cyber) operations below the threshold of attacks when they are used as means or methods of warfare. By applying the basic principles of IHL, applicable rules for operations below the threshold of attack are formulated.

The Defendant

G.L.C. (Bart) van den Bosch is associate professor military law at the Netherlands Defence Academy. He is an officer in the Royal Netherlands Army, first as an engineer and the last 17 years as a military legal advisor. He has military operational experience in Angola, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Afghanistan and South-Sudan.

Practicalities

The defence will take place on Thursday, 24 October 2019 at 12.00 hrs at the Agnietenkapel, Oudezijds Voorburgwal 229 – 231, 1012 EZ Amsterdam.