23. ANALISIS PENGGUNAAN OFFENSIVE CYBER OPERATIONS MENGHADAPI ANCAMAN NUKLIR IRAN

Abstract

Iran's nuclear program was first initiated by joining the U.S. Atoms For Peace program. It
however, changed when Iranian Revolution was occuring in 1979. Since then, the U.S has
withdrawn its support to Iran's nuclear program. Although the program has been
suspended, Iran continues its development after war with Iraq. The U.S. concerned that
Iran's new nuclear program was built to produce nuclear weapons. After failing to prevent
Iran from developing its nuclear program through diplomatic approaches, the U.S. was
seeking a new alternative by using Offensive Cyber Operation or also known as Olympic
Games. Together with Israel, the U.S. created the first ever cyber weapon called Stuxnet.
The target of this operation is Uranium Enrichment Facility in Natanz, Iran. Specifically,
Stuxnet has damaged around 1000 centrifuges whose primarily function is to enrich the
uranium. This research aims to find out the reason of the U.S. in using Offensive Cyber
Operations instead of Conventional Military Operations with regard to Iran's nuclear threat.
To do so, this research uses Offensive Realism theory with qualitative method. The
outcome of this research is: the U.S. as a rational actor has chosen Offensive Cyber
Operations because the operation has brought the U.S. a number of strategic gains that
cannot be necessarily achieved by Conventional Military Operations. These strategic gains
are 1) Anonimity 2) Practicality in terms of distance, cost and risk 3) Execution easiness
and 4) Political and bureaucracy leeway.