Information Lawfare: Messaging and the Moral High Ground

• Author: Jill I. Goldenziel
• Position: Professor of International Law and International Relations, Marine Corps University-Command and Staff College
• Pages: 233-245

Information Lawfare: Messaging and the Moral

High Ground

Jill I. Goldenziel*

The U.S. legal system is known as the envy of the world. Yet law as an instru-

ment of national power has been woefully understudied. Traditional academic

frameworks for studying the instruments of national power do not consider the

full potential of law to be used as a weapon of war between states, a concept

known as “Lawfare.” Meanwhile, U.S. adversaries understand that law can be

a potent weapon, both to achieve concrete military objectives and to win battles

in the information domain, and have wielded it against the United States. As

war escalates in the information realm, information lawfare will be a critical

piece of any participant’s strategy. Through a case study of the United States’

strike that killed Iranian Major General Soleimani in January 2020, this article

demonstrates how information lawfare can be used, and why the United States

must develop its offensive and defensive lawfare capabilities.

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

I. WHAT IS INFORMATION LAWFARE? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

II. INFORMATION LAWFARE CASE STUDY: THE SOLEIMANI STRIKE . . . . . . . . . 237

A. The United States’ Muddled Legal Messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

1. Legality of the Strike Under U.S. Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

2. Legality of the Strike Under International Law . . . . . . . . 240

3. Information Lawfare and the Costs to U.S. Legitimacy . . . 242

B. Iranian Information Lawfare and Its Quest for Legitimacy . . . 243

CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

INTRODUCTION

The U.S. legal system is known as the envy of the world. Yet law as an instru-

ment of national power has been woefully underutilized. Law has tremendous

potential to be used as a weapon of war between states, a concept known as

* Professor of International Law and International Relations, Marine Corps University-Command

and Staff College. Dean’s Visiting Scholar, Georgetown University Law Center. Thank you to Laurie

Blank, Colonel Thomas Gordon (USMC) (Ret.), Michael Pine, and students in my 2020 Lawfare and

Information Operations Elective for helpful conversations. A version of this article won a prize in the

2020 Air Force Judge Advocate General School National Security Law Writing Competition. This

article draws from two blog posts written by the author shortly after the Soleimani strike: Jill

Goldenziel, Analyzing the Legality of the Soleimani Strike, BALKANIZATION, (Jan. 7, 2020), https://

perma.cc/UR6P-YJ3X; Jill Goldenziel, Iran and the Rhetoric of International Law, BALKANIZATION

(Jan. 10, 2020), https://perma.cc/8JDU-ZT3M. My views do not necessarily represent those of Marine

Corps University, the Department of Defense, or any other arm of the U.S. Government. © 2021, Jill I.

Goldenziel.

233