Dr Camino Kavanagh is a visiting Senior Visiting Fellow with the Dept. of War Studies, King’s College London. She is also a Fellow with the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR). Her current research focuses on international security, geopolitics, conflict and technology, with a specific focus on cybersecurity and critical subsea infrastructure.

Among other roles, Camino serves as a Senior Advisor to the UN Department of Political Affairs’ Policy and Mediation Division on digital technology and conflict. She previously served as advisor and rapporteur to the UN negotiating processes on cyber/ICT and international security (the UNGGE and UNOEWG). Over the past decade, she has also worked with the Office of the UN Secretary-General and a wide range of UN entities, regional organisations, and government departments and agencies on issues related to digital technologies, national and international security, conflict, and diplomacy. She actively participates in several Track 1.5 and Track 2 initiatives in these fields.

Prior to this, Camino spent over a decade working in conflict and post-conflict contexts, including with UN peacekeeping operations and political missions.  

Research 

• Norms, international security, geopolitics, intelligence, crisis management, conflict, technology, cybersecurity, critical infrastructure protection, subsea infrastructure, United Nations, NATO.
• Current research focuses on international security, geopolitics, conflict and technology, cyber intelligence, critical infrastructure protection in crisis and conflict and emerging issues relevant to critical subsea infrastructure.

Teaching

Lectures on UN negotiating processes on cyber/ICTs and international security and other related issues. 

Publications

• ‘Subsea Communications Cables and Conflict’, in Chris Demchak and Sam J. Tangredi (eds), Cyber Warfare and Navies, USNI (forthcoming 2024).
• ‘Wading Murky Waters: Subsea Cables and Responsible State Behaviour’, UNIDIR, March 2023, https://unidir.org/sites/default/files/2023-03/UNIDIR_Wading_Murky_Waters_Subsea_Communications_Cables_Responsible_State_Behaviour.pdf
• ‘The use of intelligence in UN peacekeeping operations’ co-authored with Nicholas Tsagourias in Russell Buchan and Iñaki Navarrete (eds), Research Handbook on Intelligence and International Law (Edward Elgar, 2024/forthcoming).
• ‘Shades of Grey: Cyber Intelligence and (Inter)national Security’, co-authored with Broeders,D., EU Cyber Direct, October 2023, https://eucd.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/eucd/assets/XqXCPBb2/shades-of-grey-cyber-intelligence-and-inter-national-security.pdf
• ‘Cyber Power in International Relations’. Book Chapter with Stevens, T. in Cornish, P. (ed.), Handbook of Cybersecurity, Oxford University Press (2021), https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/41360
• Quiet Conversations: Observations on Cyber-related Track 1.5 and Track 2 Diplomacy, co-authored with Prof. Madeline Carr and Nils Berglund, EU Cyber Direct, November 2021, https://eucyberdirect.eu/research/quiet-conversations-observations-from-a-decade-of-practice-in-cyber-related-track-1-5-and-track-2-diplomacy
• ‘New Tech, New Threats and New Governance Dilemmas’, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (2019), https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/resrep20978.1.pdf
• 'Digital Technologies and Civil Conflicts: Insights for peacemakers’, EU Institute for Security Studies (2021), https://www.iss.europa.eu/sites/default/files/EUISSFiles/Brief_4_2021_0.pdf
• ‘Digital Technologies and Mediation in Armed Conflict’ report, UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (March 2019), https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/DigitalToolkitReport.pdf