EDITOR’S NOTE: This episode was recorded on 24 March 2025.
Retired U.S. Army General Paul Nakasone recently addressed the resident class at the U.S. Army War College, and he also sat down for an episode of A Better Peace with host Tom Spahr. While reflecting on his time leading the National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. Cyber Command, Nakasone provides a fascinating peek into the world of cyber intelligence. He emphasizes the critical importance of integrating signals intelligence with cyber operations to maintain speed, agility, and unity of action. The discussion also highlights the transformative power of AI in the intelligence community and the necessity of strong partnerships between the public and private sectors. Conflicts like those in Ukraine and Gaza underscore the strategic importance of adapting to modern warfare’s complexities for today’s leaders.
When you take a look at the domains of warfare, air, land, sea, space and cyberspace. The difference between cyberspace and the other 4 is the fact that it’s man made.
Podcast: Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Pandora | iHeartRadio | Blubrry | Podchaser | Podcast Index | TuneIn | Deezer | Youtube Music | RSS | Subscribe to A Better Peace: The War Room Podcast
Paul Nakasone is a retired U.S. Army general with over 3 decades of experience in signal intelligence and cyber operations. He took command of the U.S. Army Cyber Command in 2016 and two years later became the director of the National Security Agency and the United States Cyber Command. His final assignment spanning nearly 6 years, allowed him to lead the largest element of the U.S. intelligence community and the Department of Defense’s Cyber Force during 3 national elections, a global pandemic, and increased threats to the United States.
Thomas W. Spahr is the DeSerio Chair of Theater and Strategic Intelligence at the U.S. Army War College. He is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army and holds a Ph.D. in History from The Ohio State University. He teaches courses at the Army War College on Military Campaigning and Intelligence.
The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Army War College, U.S. Army, or Department of Defense.
Photo Description: Retired U.S. Army General Paul Nakasone addresses the AY25 U.S. Army War College Resident Class, 24 Mar 25.
Photo Credit: U.S. Army War College
From the written introduction to our article above: “When you take a look at the domains of warfare, air, land, sea, space and cyberspace, the difference between cyberspace and the other 4 is the fact that it’s man made.”
1. This view has been somewhat contested, for example, as noted here:
“MAN AND NATURE: Conventional wisdom holds that cyberspace is made by man, whereas the traditional domains were created by nature. This is reflected in the Department of Defense Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace: ‘Although it is a man-made domain, cyberspace is now as relevant a domain for DoD activities as the naturally occurring domains of land, sea, air, and space.’ General Michael Hayden, USAF (Ret.), former Director of the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), similarly noted: ‘the other domains are natural, created by God, and this one is the creation of man.’ This distinction of manmade vs. natural permeates the cyber warfare literature. Martin Libicki, a senior management scientist at the RAND Corporation and one of the leading thinkers about cyber warfare, writes, ‘Everyone concedes that cyberspace is man-made. This is what makes it different from its predecessors.’ While it is certainly true that cyberspace would not exist without the computers and networks created by man, all domains of warfare, with the possible exception of land, are fundamentally manmade. The maritime domain would not exist without boats, the air domain without planes, and the space domain without rockets and satellites. Indeed, these domains, along with their respective military forces, were created only after the introduction of naval vessels, military aircraft, and spacecraft, respectively. Even the domain of land is substantially manmade. Although land forces could in principle fight it out with sticks and stones, and move only on foot or the backs of horses and camels, they instead deploy a plethora of manmade tools, vehicles, and weapons to support operations over terrain that has been substantially altered by man through the construction of roads, bridges, tunnels, buildings, canals, pipelines, and so on. Indeed, urban warfare takes place in an environment that is predominantly man-made. Nature, and especially geography, still matter, but none of the traditional domains, including land, can be understood, let alone operationalized, in today’s world without accounting for the artifacts of mankind and the changes man has made to the environment. At the same time, cyberspace has a substantial natural component. It relies heavily on electromagnetic waves, as well as natural elements such as silicon. Indeed, the electromagnetic spectrum — that is, the range of all possible wavelengths and their associated frequencies, to include radio, infrared, and light waves — is crucial to communications in cyberspace. All communications, regardless of whether they are transmitted through the air or over wires or optical fibers, take the form of electromagnetic waves. And even though these waves are generated by manmade devices that convert digital information into continuously varying wave forms, they have the same physical makeup and are constrained by the same laws of physics as the naturally occurring ones in background radiation.” Electromagnetic waves are to cyberspace much as land, water, air, and space are to the traditional domains of warfare. … ” (See the article “Rethinking the Cyber Domain and Deterrence,” by Dorothy Denning, in the April 2015 issue of Joint Force Quarterly, Page 9.)
2. As an additional “domain,” might we consider the domain of the mind/the realm of ideas; to wit: the area where (see the example below) communication between individuals — in whatever form and via whatever capability, device, medium, etc. — often can determine success or failure; victory or defeat? (And a “domain,” indeed, where David can take down Goliath?)
“As to the history of the Revolution, my Ideas may be peculiar, perhaps Singular. What do We mean by the Revolution? The War? That was no part of the Revolution. It was only an Effect and Consequence of it. The Revolution was in the Minds of the People, and this was effected, from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen Years before a drop of blood was drawn at Lexington. The Records of thirteen Legislatures, the Pamphlets, Newspapers in all the Colonies ought be consulted, during that Period, to ascertain the Steps by which the public opinion was enlightened and informed concerning the Authority of Parliament over the Colonies.” (In the National Archives, see the letter from John Adam to Thomas Jefferson dated 24 August 1815.)
Hi, LOOKING AT WHAT IS HAPPENING AT PRESENT A VERY DIFFERENT BREED OF HUMAN BEIING HAS TRANSPIRED . ETHICS THRUTH , RESPECT , HAVE BEEN REPLACED BY GREED AVARIS LIARS BRUTALITY PLUS A RACE OF PEOPLE WHO ARE OUT TO DESTROY EVERY SYSTEM THAT HAS BENIFITED SOCIETY THROUGHT THE AGES INCLUDING THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF THE JUSTICE SYSTEM BY ALLOWING THE PRESIDENT TO PARDON HIMSELF AND ANYONE ELSE HE CHOOSES. THE ONLYWAY THIS CANBE REVERSED IS BY IMPEACHMENT AND THE SOONER THE BETTER.