I wish the media would stop characterizing the Russian interference in our elections as meddling, which is defined as, “to interfere in or busy oneself unduly with something that is not one’s concern.” That term trivializes what is being done.
Election hacking is an intentional, directed, prolonged attack upon the basic governmental structures of one sovereign state by the state assets of another sovereign state. That does not quite meet Clausewitz’s definition of war (“War, therefore, is an act of violence to compel our opponent to fulfill our will”) because the Russians are not actually blowing up stuff and killing people.
Sun Tzu took a more nuanced approach to war, which he said was simply actions taken to force your opponent to bend to your will. He did not require that outright violence be used. He knew that the best war is one that you win without ever having to fight. This can be done by sowing confusion, exacerbating internal rivalries and hatreds among your opponents, as well as by supporting subversion of the opponent’s governmental, military or economic systems. The Russian attacks were, and apparently still are, doing all of those things.
By Sun Tzu’s definition, the Russian cyberattacks were acts of war. If that is a bit strong, then call them cyberattacks. But do not trivialize these actions with the term “meddling.”
— Wayne Robinson, Eagle River
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