This project analyses key policy challenges and controversies in the area of cyber war and peace. Professor Greg Austin is our senior adviser on this work. Some of his publications are referenced at the bottom of this page,  including authored or edited books, and a number of authored and co-authored articles, papers and book chapters. 

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Project Launch: Australia India Joint Technology Assessment for Peace and Stability

On 29 November, the Australian National University and InKlude Labs hosted a launch event for an ambitious new project in Australia India relations, funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, under the Australia India Cyber and Critical Technologies Partnership.  The launch was supported by the Social Cyber Institute which contributed to development of the project. All six Australian participants are associated with the Institute. Read our Project Scope briefing note here.  See the video of our project launch at this link.

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New Discussion Paper: Australia’s Cyber Surge

The new Institute discussion paper from Greg Austin  is at this link. The press release with a summary of key points is here. In March 2022, Australia announced the biggest expansion and upgrade of its cyber capabilities for national security and intelligence at any time since creation of its national-level signals intelligence organisation in 1947. In political terms, there were likely three main geopolitical motivations or drivers for the Australian cyber surge: containing foreign interference in Australia, the need to deliver new levels of cyber operations as part of the AUKUS reorientation and strategic uplift, and the government’s exaggerated view of deteriorating strategic circumstances in the Indo-Pacific.

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International Webinar: Cyber Resilience Lessons from the Russia/Ukraine War (Webinar)

The webinar featured Professor Andrii Paziuk who draws on the 2024 report he coordinated, A Decade in the Trenches of Cyberwarfare:  Ukraine’s Story of Resilience. The report was published by the Cyber Diia Platform, a non-profit public association that combines the expertise and resources of various civil organizations, research and academic institutions, companies, and international partners. Commentary on the presentation is provided by Professor Ganna Pogrebna, Executive Director of the Artificial Intelligence and Cyberfutures Institute in Sydney, and a co-author of the report.

​​ Video at this link.

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International Webinar: information warfare
On 25 July, Professor Dan Svantesson of Bond University and Professor Mathieu O'Neil of Canberra University led a webinar on Australia's readiness to defeat information warfare. Watch video recording here. Svantesson presentation here. O'Neil presentation here​​.

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​Crowdsourcing an Australian cyber intelligence and information militia 

Professor Dan Jerker B. Svantesson​

June 2024 Paper is at this link.

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Cyber Capabilities and National Power (Volume 2)

IISS - 7 September 2023: Greg Austin, Saskia van Genugten, Julia Voo

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Russia, Ukraine and offensive cyber options

IISS - 24 February 2022: Greg Austin, Nadya Kostyuk, Eneken Tikk, James Crabtree

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Cyber Capabilities and National Power: A Net Assessment

IISS - 30 June 2021: Greg Austin, Gil Baram, Elina Noor, James Crabtree

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China's weak cyber defences

IISS - 3 June 2020, Greg Austin, Simone Dossi, Tim Huxley

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US coercive cyber campaigns: methodology and assessment

IISS - 20 November 2020, Greg Austin, Max Smeets, Franz-Stefan Gady

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​Related publications on cyber war and conflict by Professor Greg Austin, the project coordinator in SCI, are listed below. For a selection of videos with Professor Austin, go to this other page.

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• ‘Quantum Sensing: Comparing the United States and China’, IISS, February 2024, 30pp link 

• ‘Impact of the Russia Ukraine War on National Cyber Planning: A Survey of Ten Countries’, IISS, January 2024, co-authored with Natallia Khaniejo, 21pp, link

• ‘Winning in the Cyber Frontier: Developing Cyber Targeters and Military Daring’, The Air Power Journal (Dubai) Fall 2024, pp. 61-70,  link

• ‘Australia’, in George Christou, Wilhelm Vosse, Joe Burton and Joachim Koops (eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Cyber Diplomacy, 2025 (forthcoming)

• ‘Evaluating Australian Cyber Policy Reform: Urgency, Coherence and Depth’, Social Cyber Institute, June 2023, 20pp link

• ‘Assessing Cyber Military Maturity: Strategy, Institutions and Capability’, IISS, 2022, co- authored with Jason Blessing, 49pp link

• ‘Military Ambitions and Competition in Space: The Role of Alliances’, IISS, 2022, co-authored with Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopolan and Tim Wright, 37 pp link

• ‘Australia’s Drums of War’, Survival 63(4), 2021, 229-236

• ‘Opportunity, Threat and Dependency in the Social Infosphere’, in Paul Cornish ed. Oxford Handbook on Cyber Security (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021) 32-48

• ‘Global Trade and Cyber Security: Monitoring, Enforcement and Sanctions’, co-authored with Franz Gady, in Paul Cornish ed. Oxford Handbook on Cyber Security (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021) 514-530

• ‘The Strategic Implications of China’s Weak Cyber Defences’, Survival, 2020, Vol. 62, Issue 5, 119-138

• ‘Creating Social Cyber Value as the Broader Goal’, in Greg Austin ed. Cyber-Security Education Principles and Policies (Abingdon Oxon: Routledge, 2020) 99 – 118, co- authored with Glenn Withers

• ‘Five years of cyber security education reform in China’, in Greg Austin ed. Cyber-Security Education Principles and Policies (Abingdon Oxon: Routledge, 2020) 173 – 193, co- authored with Wenze Lu

• ‘Twelve dilemmas of reform in cyber security education’, in Greg Austin ed. Cyber-Security Education Principles and Policies (Abingdon Oxon: Routledge, 2020) 208 - 221

• ‘From Cyber Resilience to Civil Defence: contested concepts, elusive goals’, in Greg Austin ed. National Cyber Emergencies: The Return to Civil Defence (Abingdon Oxon: Routledge, 2020) 10 – 30, co-authored with Munish Sharma

• ‘US Policy: From Cyber Incidents to National Emergencies’, in Greg Austin ed. National Cyber Emergencies: The Return to Civil Defence (Abingdon Oxon: Routledge, 2020) 31-59

• ‘Australia Needs Civil Defence against the Cyber Storm’, Working Paper #7, UNSW Canberra Cyber, March 2019, co-authored with Gary Waters

• Strategic Implications of China's Weak Cyber Defences (2020)

• National Cyber Emergencies: The Return to Civil Defence  (2020 Edited Book)

• Cyber Security Education: Principles and Policy (2020 Edited Book)

• Cybersecurity in China: The Next Wave (2018 Book) 

• Australia Rearmed! Future Needs for Cyber-Enabled Warfare (2016)

• Creating Social Cyber Value as the Broader Goal (2020) pp. 99-118

• Five years of cyber security education reform in China (2020) pp. 173-193

• Twelve dilemmas of reform in cyber security education (2020) pp. 201-21

• From Cyber Resilience to Civil Defence: contested concepts, elusive goals (2020) pp. 10-30 

• US Policy: From Cyber Incidents to National Emergencies (2020) pp. 31-59 

• Are Australia's responses to cyber security adequate? (2017) PP. 50-61

• Restraint and Governance in Cyberspace: Balancing War and Justice Imperatives (2017) pp. 215-234

• Robots Writing Chinese and Fighting under Water (2017) pp. 271-290

• Middle Powers and Cyber-Enabled Warfare: The Imperative of Collective Security (2016) pp. 23-56

• International Legal Norms in Cyberspace: Evolution of China's National Security Motivations (2016)

• China’s Security in the Information Age (2015) pp. 355-370

• Promoting International Cyber Norms: A New Advocacy Forum (2014)

• A Measure of Restraint in Cyberspace: Reducing Risk to Civilian Nuclear Assets (2014) 

• Australian Defence Policy in the Information Age (2104)

• Resetting the System: Why Highly Secure Computing Should Be the Priority of Cybersecurity Policies

• Cyber Policy in China (2014) Book

• Cyber Detente between the United States and China: Shaping the Agenda (2012)

• Russia, the United States, and Cyber Diplomacy: Opening the Doors (2012)​​​​