Unpacking State-Sponsored Cyber Conflict: Intelligence-Driven Strategic Competition in Cyberspace

By: William Akoto | January 7, 2026

Covert cyber operations are central to state competition, yet scholars disagree whether they are intelligence contests or tools of strategic competition. I develop an Intelligence-Driven Strategic Competition (IDSC) framework that treats cyber conflict as an intelligence contest in which some campaigns are organized to generate cumulative, strategically meaningful costs. Through case analysis of multiple state-sponsored cyber campaigns, I show how intelligence practices fuse with strategic aims and why their cumulative impact varies. The framework bridges existing literatures, with important implications for deterrence, persistent engagement practices and cyber resilience.

Click here to read more.