Is Election Meddling an Act of War?

Elad Uzan argues that although it may well be, this doesn’t necessarily justify a warlike response.

- Elad Uzan

In July 2020, then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden put Russia and others on notice. “If any foreign power recklessly chooses to interfere in our democracy”, he said, “I will not hesitate to respond as President to impose substantial and lasting costs.” Soon after he was elected, Biden warned that a massive Russian cyberattack against the United States, revealed in late December, would not go unanswered. In a statement issued by his transition team, the President-elect sounded ready for battle: “A good defense isn’t enough. We need to disrupt and deter our adversaries from undertaking significant cyberattacks in the first place… Our adversaries should know that, as President, I will not stand idly by in the face of cyber assaults on our nation.”

Former President Trump never confronted Vladimir Putin over Russia’s cyber aggression directed at American companies and government agencies. Nor did Trump and his congressional allies move to hold Moscow accountable for its attempts to undermine American democratic institutions: the hacking of prominent Democrats’ email accounts, and a concerted campaign by Russian agents to sway the outcome of the 2016 election using malignant software (in this case, bots), social media manipulation and online propaganda.