I feel that there is valid reasoning to consider cyberspace as a domain of operations like all others. A significant factor for this is how cyberspace has already been utilized for both countries and actors attacking and defending against each other. Countries like the United States, Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and many others have offensive, defensive, or both types of cyber operations as a part of their military strategy and have had it integrated for years. Furthermore, cyberspace offers a special utility with the connection to modern military technologies, the ability to monitor others, the capability for sending out attacks rapidly, building up cyber defenses, as well as enhancing the other military domains’ strategies with the evolution of technology. Whether it was for inciting harm, mitigating harm, gathering information, or being used for espionage, it has already been shown that cyberspace can be and has been used as a domain of operations and, therefore, should be considered as one just like land, sea, air, and space.

However, a consequence of cyberspace being accepted as a domain of operations means that there needs to be more effort into establishing the rules associated with the domain’s operations. It can no longer be a topic that is almost up in the air due to the difficulty of intertwining cyberspace and law. The addition of a legal framework can help, but there will need to be more time given to addressing how to utilize cyberspace as a domain of operations. Another consequence of cyberspace is managing accessibility. With the domain being available for anyone with the technology to cause significant damage to a country, there is a need to work toward mitigating cyber-attacks from non-state actors as much as possible for safety, as well as deterring people from doing so in the future. This also includes countries defending themselves from each other from attacks such as espionage, attacks on critical infrastructure, malware that affects a large number of citizens, and escalation into greater attacks from the other domains. While it makes sense to accept cyberspace as a domain of operations due to its current utility in military strategy, consequences such as legal boundaries and the harmful side of accessibility should also be considered as a part of that choice.