Lucas Kello is Associate Professor of International Relations and co-Director of the interdisciplinary Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security at Oxford University. His publications include The Virtual Weapon and International Order, “The Meaning of the Cyber Revolution: Perils to Theory and Statecraft” in International Security, and “Security” in The Oxford Companion to International Relations . His forthcoming book, Striking Back, considers how western nations can fight back to preserve the international order against relentless technological aggression occurring below the threshold of war – i.e., in the realm of what he calls “unpeace,” a term that he coined in his first book. The new book "delves into recent history to reveal the failures of the present policy in preventing and punishing cyberattacks and other forms of technological aggression. Drawing upon case studies and interviews, Kello develops a bold new solution—a coordinated retaliation strategy that justly and effectively responds to attacks and deters further antagonism. This book provides an approachable yet nuanced exploration of national security and survival in the twenty-first century."
I have known Lucas since 1995 when I helped him conceive and sponsor his research trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina in the aftermath of the Dayton Accords. He specifically was engaged in helping to document the destruction of Bosnian cultural, architectural, and religious institutions and sites. We worked with Harvard University’s Andras Riedlmeyer, the Agha Khan bibliographer in Islamic Art and Architecture at the Fine Arts Library Foundation, and the noted war crimes expert Professor Cherif-Bassiouni who charged the Milosvic regime with "cultural genocide."
Lucas and I have collaborated and interacted closely over many years of friendship. I was one of his sponsors for his Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Harvard Belfer Center for Science and Technology when he was my Institute’s INSPIRE Fellow. He helped run and participated in several of the Institute's professional workshops, most recently during the 2016 EPIIC year on The Future of Europe.
Together that year we created a chain of acknowledgement to honor the renowned Professor Stanley Hoffmann who was Lucas' senior honors thesis advisor at Harvard College, alongside his close Oxford colleague and Stanley’s longtime friend Professor Kalypso Nicolaïdis. Stanley had been my friend and advisor for many years, starting with his Advisory role to my publication Leviathan: Middle East Politics and Culture in the late 1970's.
Lucas was the liaison for my appointment as a non-resident research associate in Oxford University’s Centre for International Studies.