Guerre à la Carte: Cyber, Information, Cognitive Warfare and the Metaverse

Hybrid warfare is among the most trending topics. Hybrid threats arise in digital, cybernetic, and virtual environments and materialize in the real world. Although vague, hybrid activities include cyberwarfare, information warfare, and the emerging and evolving concept of cognitive warfare which appears from their intersection. These wordings gained popular attention in the context of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict and now are among the hot topics. While there is a lot of attention, there is also a lot of confusion about what exactly these locutions mean and what the implications are in branding them as “warfare”. Indeed, all such concepts are fluid, nebulous, and lack an undisputed legal definition. This work aims to clarify the legal meaning and to shed light on the characteristics – differences, similarities and overlaps – of these terms in the context of hybrid warfare and show the faulty reasoning upon which misunderstandings are based. The paper ends-up with a glimpse into the future, closing with a reflection on multi-domain operations facilitated by advancing virtual and augmented reality and a fully integrated human-computer interaction in the metaverse. ; Paper presented at the International Scientific Conference "'Communication. Disinformation. Propaganda. Information warfare ecosystem" (KDP 2023) organised by the Faculty of Administration and National Security of the Jakub of Paradies University in Gorzow Wielkopolski (Poland), the Baltic Defense College in Tartu (Estonia), the University of Tartu (Estonian Republic), the Estonian Military Academy in Tartu (Estonia), Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) (Estonia) and the Institute of Public Administration and Social Policy at the Faculty of Public Policy of the Silesian University in Opava (Czechia) and Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies of Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University (Ukraine), held on 25-26 May 2023 (Panel VII, 26 May). Full paper to be published in Applied Cybersecurity & Internet Governance (ACIG), vol. 2, no. 1, June .