Cyber Campaigning: Mid-Tier States Can Leverage Civilian Cyber Power

3 Sep 2026 12:16 PM

States lacking vast nuclear and conventional capabilities should team with the private sector via letters of marque and digital levée en masse.

States that lack nuclear arsenals and large conventional forces should make greater use of cyberspace as a strategic environment. Unlike the nuclear domain, cyberspace does not require enormous financial or technological investments to achieve strategic effects. It is accessible to states of different sizes and, importantly, to non-state actors and private companies. The war in Ukraine demonstrates this increasingly blurred boundary: not only states but cyber activists and technology companies such as Starlink, Amazon and Microsoft have impact on the conflict.

Cyberspace creates opportunities for mid-tier states. Rather than attempting to replicate the capabilities of major cyber powers they can exploit the distinctive logic of cyberspace and cooperation with civilian partners. Two mechanisms could operationalise this approach: Cyber letters of marque, whereby states authorise private technology companies to conduct specified cyber operations on their behalf; and a digital levée en masse, through which civilian cyber expertise is mobilised to strengthen national cyber resilience and, where appropriate, support operations during conflict.

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