Cyber Attacks and Maritime Situational Awareness Evidence from Japan and Taiwan

This paper argues that cyber-attacks are increasingly being seen as a threat to maritime situational awareness in the Asia Pacific region, and highlights how the Japanese and Taiwanese governments have been developing both offensive and defensive cyber operations to ameliorate vulnerabilities in their naval fleets vis-a-vis their respective relationships with China. The paper begins by exploring traditional understandings of maritime situational awareness and how changes in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) have transformed the maritime strategic environment in recent decades. The paper moves on to explore how countries in the region, including China, the US, Japan and Taiwan are developing new capabilities in this area and new military doctrine to avoid disruptions to maritime operations. The final section of the paper presents a forward looking analysis of how cyber-attacks could affect military responses to territorial dispute in the South China Sea in particular, and the normative dangers of cyber militarization in the naval domain. The paper is based on field research conducted in Japan and Taiwan in 2014/15.