The 5^th annual competition in 2011 was intended to stimulate new approaches to coordinated civilian and military action from a broad spectrum of civilian and military students. Essays were to address U.S. Government structure, policies, capabilities, resources, and/or practices and to provide creative, feasible ideas on how best to orchestrate the core competencies of our national security institutions. The NDU Foundation awarded the first place winner a generous gift certificate from Amazon.com

The Stuxnet virus aimed at Iran was not just another cyber threat; it appeared specifically directed at the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz as well as the computers that perform automated tasks controlling, for example, water plants and electric power grids. Yet Tehran dismissed the delay in making the Bushehr nuclear plant operational as due to “technical reasons” and did not name Stuxnet as the culprit. A statement by the victim country that it had been attacked and how would have allowed the international community to study a clear example of a cyber attack. As it is, it will go down as one more uncategorized cyber incident. A chance was missed to set boundaries for illegal behavior in cyberspace

The Stuxnet malware attacks on Iranian nuclear sites have heightened cyber security concerns. Stuxnet and cyberpower more generally are understood in a variety of ways, but Stuxnet specifically, being viewed as the digital equivalent of fire and forget missiles, harrows planners with the specter of a cyber event as catastrophic in its sphere as nuclear war between the superpowers threatened to be in the last century. The contention here is that it is more constructive to conceive of Stuxnet as special operations in cyberspace, with strengths and weaknesses corresponding to conventional special operations. However it is viewed, Stuxnet provides an opportunity and motivation for considering cyber attacks more widely as an instrument of strategy and policy