http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee 214 Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies Núm. 8 / 2016 In the following pages we shall endeavour bring the reader up to date regarding the status of journalism in armed conflict and its usefulness in this type of situation. We will see how it continues to be the principal tool for informing citizens, and how it also adopts a dual function depending on who is utilising it: it can end up becoming a method of war, above all by means of the dissemination of propaganda, and yet is also a valuable instrument for assisting victims and facilitating peace. Our point of depar-ture is that in a changing world, dominated by new technologies, war has also become such a complex phenomenon that it is even difficult to tell when we are at war11. THE ERA OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES Despite the fact that it is by no means straightforward to know exactly what warfare is in this day and age, we are able to note that one of the most salient aspects of current conflicts is the asymmetry observed between rivals, which basically entails the refusal of these new actors to respect the law as part of armed conflict, thereby converting exactly this attitude into their primary method of combat. The weakest rival in military terms will use its rejection of the standards established as a weapon to subjugate the superior capabilities of its enemy. Asymmetry and its humanitarian consequences represent one of the most urgent challenges facing International Humanitarian Law, given that, as Cassese warns,12 everything leads one to believe that this mode of conflict will be observed ever more fre-quently. This is perhaps the only proper clue as to what we can expect the future to hold, the idea that the asymmetric component of conflicts will remain in place, which is synon-ymous with stating that the only thing that is certain in the present is future uncertainty. To further complicate this backdrop, many of the armed conflicts that we see today have dropped the adjective and are no longer armed, since there is no use of conven-tional weapons. The new threats are in line with new technologies and the digital world marks a juncture just as important as writing or the printing press were in their day,13 which has forced there to be a rethink of states’security strategies, since they are subject to this ever-evolving process whose final consequences are unforeseeable. We see the appearance of cyberwar, impossible without a prior technological revolution, or terrorism with international ramifications, which relies on the so-called social net-works and the internet to spread its doctrine and to recruit supporters. Within poli-tical discourse, terms are being coined such as the «global war on terrorism», which alongside the rhetoric of governments demonstrates the new settings in which current conflicts play out, since they are no longer purely military ones. In this vein, President 11 MORÁN BLANCO, S., GONZÁLEZ MARÍN, A., Asimetría, guerras e información, Madrid, Ed. Dílex, p. 309. 12 CASSESE, A., «The Current Challenges to International Humanitarian Law», The Oxford Handbook of International Law in Armed Conflict, Oxford University Press, 2014, p. 9. 13 Strategic Panorama. Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies. Ministry of Defence, Madrid 2013, p. 7. http:// www.ieee.es/Galerias/fichero/panoramas/Panorama_Estrategico_2013.pdf.
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