The Decision to Attack: Military and Intelligence Cyber Decision Making
The debate over the importance of cyber has resulted in the consideration of a new domain of operation vital to national security. States find themselves in an increasingly interconnected world with a diverse threat spectrum and little understanding of how decisions are made within this amorphous domain. Much of the literature on cyber has focused on defining what cyber is. This dissertation examines how states decide to employ cyber in military and intelligence operations against other states. The research question this work seeks to answer is: do states rationally decide to employ cyber in military and intelligence operations against other states? This work contextualizes broader cyber decision making processes into a systematic expected utility rational choice approach to provide a mathematical understanding behind the use of cyber weapons at the state level. INDEX WORDS: Cyber, Intelligence, National Security, Decision Making THE DECISION TO ATTACK: MILITARY AND INTELLIGENCE CYBER DECISION MAKING