Dr Camino Kavanagh

Dr. Camino Kavanagh is a visiting Senior Fellow with the Dept. of War Studies, where she obtained her PhD in 2015 under the supervision of Prof.s David Betz and Thomas Rid. Her thesis examined the historic relation between the state and information technology. Her current research focuses on international politics, conflict and technology.

Camino is currently a member of the UN advisory support team to the Chairs of two UN negotiating processes relating to cyber/ICT and international security (the UN Open Ended Working Group and the UN Group of Governmental Experts). In 2016-2017 she served as rapporteur/consultant to the UN Group of Governmental Experts on the same subject. Over the past decade she has advised and consulted with international and regional organisations such as the UN, OSCE, OAS, as well as national government departments and agencies on issues relevant to digital technologies and national/international security and diplomacy matters.

Prior to this, Dr. Kavanagh spent over a decade working in conflict and post-conflict contexts, including with UN peacekeeping operations and political missions in Africa and Central America; as post-conflict reform and policy advisor to governments and organizations in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia; and has managed different policy and research initiatives relating to organized crime and terrorism.

Qualifications

• PhD, War Studies, King’s College London
• MA War in the Modern World (WIMW), King’s College London
• MA Human Rights and Democratization, European Centre for Human Rights
• MA Translation/Interpreting and European Studies, Université Mons-Hainaut, Belgium
• BA, University College Dublin

Affiliations

Non-resident scholar, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

 

Research Interests

• Cyber operations and preventive diplomacy
• Transparency and accountability in cyber operations
• Digital technologies and civil conflicts
• Implications of AI for preventive diplomacy (2021)

 

Publications

Book chapters

• Cyber Power in International Relations’. Book Chapter with Stevens, T. in (Ed. Cornish, P.). Handbook of Cybersecurity, Oxford University Press (forthcoming 2020)
• Cybersecurity and Human Rights in Research Handbook on Human Rights and Digital Technology, with Dunn-Cavelty, M. (Ed. B.Wagner, M.C.Kettemann and K.Vieth), 2019
• ‘Transnational Crimes’ Use of Cyber and IT Capabilities as a Force Multiplier’. Book chapter in Comolli, V. (ed.) The Strategic Implications of Transnational Organised Crime. Palgrave MacMillan (December, 2017)

Research articles

• Confidence Building Measures and ICT In Thematic Issue ‘Patterns of Coalition Building in International Cybersecurity Cooperation and the Role of the EU’ (2019), European Foreign Affairs Review
• Cybersecurity, Sovereignty and U.S. Foreign Policy (2014), American Foreign Policy Interests, Taylor and Francis. (Editor, various authors)

Policy papers

• ‘Digital Technologies and Mediation in Armed Conflict’ report and Digital Toolkit, UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (March 2019).
• New Tech, New Threats and New Governance Dilemmas, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (September, 2019)
• The United Nations, Cyberspace and International Peace and Security: Responding to Complexity in the 21st Century (November 2017)
• Private Sector Engagement in Responding to the Use of the Internet and ICT for Terrorist Purposes: Strengthening Dialogue and Building Trust (2016)

Commentary

• ‘6 ways to ensure AI and new tech works for – not against – humanity’, with Muggah, R. World Economic Forum (June 2018).