  Each strategy has a foundation, an overarching way of explaining why things
are the way we see them and how to successfully reach our goals. Therefore,
strategy is theory based because theory provides an intellectual framework for
predicting outcomes leading to the end goal the strategy pursues. This article
will present a theory, strategic cyberwar theory, that states that the utility
of strategic cyberwar is tied to the likelihood of institutional instability in
the targeted nation. In an ideal scenario, the cyber attacks are systematically
attacking the targeted adversary institutions triggering the dormant entropy
embedded in a nation with weak institutions. This will lead to submission to
foreign policy and intent. The current alternative to strategic cyberwar theory
is to unsystematically attack the adversary with cyber attacks where
exploitation opportunities occur, which is likely to degrade parts of the
information infrastructure, but it will not reach any strategic goals. If an
adversarial society is unaffected by a cyber conflict, the conflict itself has
not reached a decisive outcome, and results only in tit for tat game or
stalemate. In strategic cyberwar theory1, the concept is to cyber attack the
core of the institutional framework of the adversarial nation in pursuit of
destabilization.
