[특집] 21세기 정보화 시대의 미국의 새로운 안보 전략

America's New Security Strategy for the 21st Century: To Prepare for the Upcoming Cyberwar

The United States is in a precarious situation in which external threats to its security increase rapidly while political support and military resources required to deflect them are sliding substantially. This situation, along with the progress in information technology, is driving the United States to strengthen its cyberwar or information war capabilities. The recently published Joint Vision 2020 carries this message at the center.Cyberwar refers to conducting military operations according to information-related principles, negatively affecting adversaries' information assets while at the same time denying their capabilities to affect one's own. With both defensive and offensive aspects, cyberwar has the potential to utilize US war-fighting capabilities maximally in the battlefields.Offensive cyberwar has so far remained supplementary to the traditional warfare in US military strategy and little is known to the public in spite of the great sophistication in recent years. In contrast, defensive cyberwar has received far more attention in light of the vulnerabilities of US information infrastructure and its grave consequences to US power projection capabilities as well as to the whole society. The US government is now treating the threats to its information assets as serious national security issues.This approach. however, involves several strategic, legal. and ethical problems.Fil'st, the national boundary in the cyberspace in unclear, thereby making it hard to determine whether one's territory is invaded or not, not to mention the difficulty of making retaliations proportionate to the intensity of attacks. Once the massive retaliation principle is adopted, more trouble may follow by aggravating any minor infraction into a major confrontation. This paper also points out the inherent weaknesses of the United States to wage cyberwars such as its societal openness and the inability to mobilize society for the war efforts. Granted, the United States is expected to accelerate its efforts to enhance cyberwar capabilities.Cyberwar has great potentials for South Korea's effort to deflect possible attacks from North Korea. Similar to the US counterpart, South Korean military is experiencing stiffer budget constraints imposed by the recent economic crisis and North-South peace process. Cyberwar offers great opportunities to strengthen the punch without increasing the size of its military. At present, South Korea's first priority is to establish a flawless command-control system with the United States to maximize the efficiency of joint cyberwar-making capabilities. In addition. the safety of South Korea's information infrastructure needs beefing up, let alone the security from the possible attacks from North Korea.