Does the employment of military cyber capabilities constitute war? How this question is answered is essential to the study of war; the development of military cyber doctrines, units, and education; and the intentional employment of state or military cyber capabilities against other states both in peacetime and war. Contemporary literature portrays cyber means as effective and considers cyber war or warfare as being waged. Legal theory and state position analysis thus follow the black letter of the law, especially focussing on whether the use of cyber capabilities constitutes the use of force or armed attack.
In this research paper, Mika Kerttunen argues that while cyber operations may be relatively ineffective for conducting war, their peacetime employment can contribute to the outbreak of conflict due to their violent nature.