INFORMATION WARFARE - THE INTERNATIONAL LEGAL REGIME EVOLUTION, CHALLENGES, ARCHITECTURE, AND THE PATH FORWARD

Abstract

The use of information warfare is now increasingly fusing cyber intrusions, infrastructure compromises, disinformation, and synthetic media using artificial intelligence in ways that are blurring the lines between peace and armed conflict. International law is not lacking, but the rules are scattered between sovereignty and non-intervention, state responsibility, jus ad bellum, international humanitarian law (IHL), human rights law and platform regulation. The current debate on both topics is largely conducted in isolation: problems of technical cyber operations and cognitive information operations overlap in the issues of attribution, threshold, civilian harm, and state control of information flows. The article explores the UN Charter, ARSIWA, IHL, the Tallinn Manuals, UN cyber-governance processes, and selected state practices through the lens of qualitative doctrinal legal research and comparative case analysis. It looks at the cyber threat of Stuxnet, Salt Typhoon, and the India-Pakistan conflict of May 2025 as different types of information warfare. The analysis concludes that IHL cannot stand alone to regulate continuous activity that does not reach the threshold of armed conflict and that the treaty has a vital role to play in the regulation of information operations in situations where they are linked to armed conflict. It also suggests that the clash of different visions on digital sovereignty is an obstacle to norm formation. A reform agenda, based on the interpretation of the lex specialis, is proposed with a focus on attribution, critical civilian digital infrastructure, AI-generated synthetic media and accountability in the platform mediated information environment.

Bibliography Entry

Fayyaz, Prof. Dr. Shabana. 2026. "Information Warfare – The International Legal Regime Evolution, Challenges, Architecture, and The Path Forward." Strategic Thought (7): 129-152.