During the age of sail, the employment of letters of marque and reprisal were a legitimate form of naval warfare, enhancing a state's maritime power while disrupting its enemy's economic capacity to wage war. Privateers were state-sponsored pirates-civilian auxiliaries commissioned by authorized government officials to attack an enemy nation's merchant fleet. Letters of marque and reprisal issued by their government legitimized their piratical activities. With the cover of such documents, privateers preyed upon on any vessel flying the flag of an enemy nation. Governments paid nothing to these mariners during war, but gained from their exploits against enemies, usually taking portions of prizes seized from enemy vessels. This monograph follows pragmatist methodology and uses a historical analogy to compare characteristics of privateering to a recent state-sponsored cyber operation. It also explores the possibility of privateers in cyberspace operating on behalf of American interests. This paper does not investigate analogy to claim that history repeats itself, but instead evaluates whether and how historical concepts can be useful when interpreting contemporary events.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the student-authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency. (References to these studies should include the foregoing statement.)