Lea Konrad

PhD topic

• "Alliance Politics of Cyber Security - The Collective Securitisation of Cyber Space in NATO" (working title, supervisor: Prof. Dr. Andrea Gawrich), Updated June 2024

The PhD Project “Alliance Politics of Cyber Security - The Collective Securitisation of Cyber Space in NATO” focuses on the question of how it was possible to collectively agree on a set of security issues in cyberspace and initiate policies in response within the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

Firstly, it traces the development of threat perceptions and security framings within Cyberspace by mapping how understandings of “cyber security” and “cyber defence” were established and adapted from the early 2000s till the present. It builds a conceptual bridge to existing scholarship on cyber securitisation by highlighting how security issues and responses in cyberspace differ from other policy fields. The underlying assumption is aligned with the theoretical framework of securitisation wherein threat articulations provide insights on the justification of policies in response, the objects that a collective of states deems valuable and the changing mandate of the security organisation. To collectively agree on the articulation of a security issue is thus more than a descriptive endeavour – it’s a highly political choice agreed upon within a wider process of collective bargaining. Consequentially, understanding the process of cyber securitisation does not only tell us something about the role the allies foresee for NATO in cyberspace but also highlights how the alliances mandate adapts to emerging challenges.

Second, this PhD project investigates how NATO allies have reached the decision(s) that NATO should act as a security provider in cyberspace and in which capacity. While at this point in time, the allies have emphasised the applicability of NATO’s mandate of collective defence in cyberspace through new strategic documents, institutional adaptations and joint capability pledges, the key argument is that this genesis was not inevitable but formed by a specific context, security discourse, member state preferences and practice. Part of the research question is thus what the political process behind the decision(s) to task NATO with providing security in cyberspace in specific ways was like, how different member states and institutional actors positioned themselves and which policy choices followed on different understandings of cybersecurity?

Thirdly, the project builds upon existing scholarship on collective securitisation (mostly within the European Union), paying close attention to the way the allies' threat perception and policy preferences have been influenced by key events (i.e. cyber incidents), long-term trends (i.e. advances in technology and cyber capabilities, attribution etc.) and macro-securitisations (i.e. great power competition). It thus asks which overall circumstances made changes in strategy and policy possible.

This project thus revolves around the politics behind NATO’s cyber security policy. It contributes to current academic and practice debates on security governance, cyber and collective securitisation, international cyber security policy in general, and (cyber) policymaking within NATO in particular. The analysis will be based on a data set of a) existing literature on NATO-Cyber Policy, b) NATO strategic documents and press releases, c) elite interviews with NATO and Member state representatives and d) strategic documents and press releases by selected member states (US, UK, FR, NL, GER, EST, ALB).

Research focus

• Regional Security Organisations (focus: NATO, EU/CSDP)
• Transatlantic Security Relations (focus: USA-GER, USA-EU)
• Foreign & Security Policy of Germany & the U.S. (esp. Cybersecurity, China Policy, Eastern Europe)
• Rising Powers and World Order (esp. Security Implications of the Rise of China)

Academic Conference Presentations

• "The EU’s Gender-Democracy Support Nexus in its Neigbhourhoods – one size fits all or tailor-made?" (with Andrea Gawrich), Conference paper presented at the European Workshops in International Studies (EWIS), Amsterdam, 12-14.06.2023
• "The War and the securitisation of the German Foreign Policy Discourse - Between 'Zivilmacht' and 'Zeitenwende'" (with Andrea Gawrich and Maraike Vandergrift), Conference paper presented at the European Union Studies Association (EUSA), Pittsburgh, 4-6 May 2023, Panel 6C: Reactions to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine: Politics and Policies in the European Union (II)

Lectures

• "From German Zivilmacht to Zeitenwende" (with Maraike Vandergrift), Ringvorlesung Institut für Politikwissenschaft, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, 17.01.2024.
• "Deutsch-amerikanischen Beziehungen im Kontext des russischen Angriffskriegs in der Ukraine und die 'Zeitenwende'", Atlantische Akademie Rheinland-Pfalz / Verband Deutsch-Amerikanischer Clubs, 04.03.2023, digitaler Vortrag.
• "Transatlantic Security Relations - Germany, the United States and NATO", Jugendfachseminar der WBZ, Fridtjof-Nansen-Akademie & Atlantischen Akademie, 16. Juli 2022, Ingelheim.
• "Die Außenpolitik der USA: Akteure, Strukturen und Strategien im Spiegel ausgewählter Theorien der internationalen Politik", Akademie für Politische Bildung Tutzing, 23.06.2022, FLANQ Seminar 11. Sequenz, Tutzing.
• "Russlands Krieg gegen die Ukraine", IG Metall Jugendausschuss Sitzung, 06.04.2022, Lohr am Main.
• "Einführung in die Theorien der Internationalen Beziehungen", Sicherheitspolitische Grundakademie des Bundesverband Sicherheitspolitik an Hochschulen, 27.03.2022.
• "Cybersicherheit in NATO und GSVP", Ringvorlesung Institut für Politikwissenschaft, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, 31.01.2022.
• "Einführung in die Theorien der Internationalen Beziehungen", Sicherheitspolitische Grundakademie des Bundesverband Sicherheitspolitik an Hochschulen, 05.09.2021.