Cyberwars in the Middle East / / Ahmed Al-Rawi.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2021 English
• VerfasserIn: Al-Rawi, Ahmed,
• Place / Publishing House: New Brunswick, NJ : : Rutgers University Press, , [2021]; ©2021
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: War Culture
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (194 p.) :; 22 b-w images, 12 tables
• Other title: Frontmatter --; Contents --; Preface and Acknowledgments --; Introduction --; 1 Toward a Theoretical Framework of Cyberwars --; 2 Cyberwars and International Politics --; 3 U.S. Cyberoperations in the Middle East --; 4 Russian Trolls, Islam, and the Middle East --; 5 Cyberwars and Regional Politics --; 6 Arab Hackers and Electronic Armies --; Conclusion --; Appendix: Selected List of Arab Hacking Groups --; Notes --; References --; Index --; About the Author
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9781978810143; 9783110754001; 9783110753776; 9783110754087; 9783110753851; 9783110739138
• DOI: 10.36019/9781978810143
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Ahmed Al-Rawi.

Cyberwars in the Middle East argues that hacking is a form of online political disruption whose influence flows vertically in two directions (top-bottom or bottom-up) or horizontally. These hacking activities are performed along three political dimensions: international, regional, and local. Author Ahmed Al-Rawi argues that political hacking is an aggressive and militant form of public communication employed by tech-savvy individuals, regardless of their affiliations, in order to influence politics and policies. Kenneth Waltz’s structural realism theory is linked to this argument as it provides a relevant framework to explain why nation-states employ cyber tools against each other. On the one hand, nation-states as well as their affiliated hacking groups like cyber warriors employ hacking as offensive and defensive tools in connection to the cyber activity or inactivity of other nation-states, such as the role of Russian Trolls disseminating disinformation on social media during the US 2016 presidential election. This is regarded as a horizontal flow of political disruption. Sometimes, nation-states, like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, use hacking and surveillance tactics as a vertical flow (top-bottom) form of online political disruption by targeting their own citizens due to their oppositional or activists’ political views. On the other hand, regular hackers who are often politically independent practice a form of bottom-top political disruption to address issues related to the internal politics of their respective nation-states such as the case of a number of Iraqi, Saudi, and Algerian hackers. In some cases, other hackers target ordinary citizens to express opposition to their political or ideological views which is regarded as a horizontal form of online political disruption. This book is the first of its kind to shine a light on many ways that governments and hackers are perpetrating cyber attacks in the Middle East and beyond, and to show the ripple effect of these attacks.