Abstract: The cyber revolution is the revolution of our time. The rapid expansion of cyberspace in society brings both promise and peril. It promotes new modes of political cooperation, but it also disrupts interstate dealings and empowers subversive actors who may instigate diplomatic and military crises. Despite significant experience with cyber incidents, the conceptual apparatus to analyse, understand, and address their effects on international order remains primitive. Here, Lucas Kello adapts and applies international relations theory to create new ways of thinking about cyber strategy. Kello draws on a broad range of case studies—including the Stuxnet operation against Iran, the cyberattacks against Sony Pictures, and the disruption of the 2016 U.S. presidential election—to make sense of the contemporary technological revolution. Synthesizing data from government documents, forensic reports of major events, and interviews with senior decisionmakers, this important work establishes new theoretical benchmarks to help security experts revise strategy and policy for the unprecedented challenges of our era.

Lucas Kello is Senior Lecturer in International Relations, Director of the Centre for Technology and Global Affairs, and co-Director of the interdisciplinary Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security (Department of Computer Science).

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