The premise of this talk is that cyber weapons differ qualitatively from kinetic ones in their properties, opportunities and constraints in a way that is comparable to the qualitative difference between conventional and nuclear weapons. Their qualitative difference raises a series of unresolved policy challenges at the domestic, bilateral, and international levels and poses risks particular to cyber operations: uncertainty about the unintended consequences, efficacy, as well as the target’s and the international community’s response.

Cyber operations offer considerable benefits for states to achieve strategic objectives both covertly and overtly. However, without a strategic framework to contain and deter their use, make state behaviour more predictable, and limit their proliferation, they present a cyber security dilemma that reinforces collective insecurity.

About the speaker

Christian Leuprecht (Ph.D, Queen’s) is Class of 1965 Professor in Leadership, Department of Political Science and Economics, Royal Military College and Eisenhower Fellow at the NATO Defence College in Rome.  He is cross-appointed, Department of Political Studies and the School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University, where he is affiliated with both, the Queen’s Centre for International and Defence Policy and the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, and Adjunct Research Professor, Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security, Charles Sturt University as well as the Centre for Crime Policy and Research, Flinders University.

A recipient of RMC’s Cowan Prize for Excellence in Research and an elected member of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada, he is also Munk Senior Fellow in Security and Defence at the Macdonald Laurier Institute. An expert in security and defence, political demography, and comparative federalism and multilevel governance, he has held visiting positions in North America, Europe, and Australia, and is regularly called as an expert witness to testify before committees of Parliament. He holds appointments to the board of two new research institutes funded by the German government, including the German Institute for Defence and Strategic Studies.

His publications have appeared in English, German, French, and Spanish and include 12 books and scores of articles that have appeared, inter alia, in the Florida State University Law Review (2019), Electoral Studies (2016), Government Information Quarterly (2016), Armed Forces and Society (2015), Global Crime (2015, 2013), the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal (2014, Maureen Molot Prize for Best Article), Canadian Public Administration (2014), the Canadian Journal of Political Science (2012, 2003), Regional and Federal Studies (2012), and Terrorism and Political Violence (2018, 2017, 2011). His editorials appear regularly across Canada’s national newspapers and he is a frequent commentator in domestic and international media.

All are welcome to this event. No need to register.