Dr Tim Stevens

Dr Stevens is on research leave from 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2023.

Dr Stevens is a Reader in International Security and head of the King's Cyber Security Research Group. His research looks at the intersection of technology, politics and global security practices, with specific interests in the politics and governance of cybersecurity. He has also written on time and temporality in International Relations, including in a monograph, Cyber Security and the Politics of Time (Cambridge University Press, 2016).

He joined the Department of War Studies as a lecturer in 2016, having previously taught at King's and Royal Holloway University of London.

Dr Stevens has a BA (Hons) in Archaeology from University College London, and an MA, MRes and PhD in War Studies from King’s College London. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Senior Fellow and Associate Researcher at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (Cnam), Paris. He is the inaugural International Fellow at the Research Institute for Sociotechnical Cyber Security (RISCS).

Dr Stevens comments often on cybersecurity and related issues for a range of media outlets (TV, radio, print, online), including BBC, Channel 4, ITN, Sky, Al Jazeera, Reuters, Bloomberg, The Guardian, The Independent, Sunday Times, Wall Street Journal, Daily Telegraph, Newsweek and many others. Please direct media enquiries to comms-soss@kcl.ac.uk

Research Interests

Tim Stevens’ research is situated at the intersection of technology, politics and global security. He is particularly interested in information technologies and their roles in shaping and enabling global security practices. He has written extensively on the politics and governance of cybersecurity, especially in its strategic and international dimensions.

Dr Stevens is currently researching and writing a book on the political economy of cyber risk.

A full list of research outputs and activities can be found here.

Dr Stevens’ research interests include:

• Cybersecurity
• Cyberwarfare
• Global governance
• Time and politics
• International political sociology
• Science and Technology Studies

Publications

Books:

• Tim Stevens (in press, 2023). What is Cybersecurity For? Bristol: Bristol University Press.
• Amy Ertan, Kathryn Floyd, Piret Pernik and Tim Stevens, eds. (2021). Cyber Threats and NATO 2030: Horizon Scanning and Analysis. Tallinn: NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence.
• Tim Stevens and Nicholas Michelsen, eds. (2020). Pessimism in International Relations: Provocations, Possibilities, Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Tim Stevens (2015). Cyber Security and the Politics of Time. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• David J. Betz and Tim Stevens (2011). Cyberspace and the State: Toward a Strategy for Cyber-Power. Adelphi 424. London: Routledge for the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Book chapters:

• Tim Stevens (in press). War with shadows: Persistent engagement and the power-topologies of US military cyberspace operations. In S. Matviyenko and K. Hilstob, eds., Cyberwar Topologies: In Struggle for a Post-American Internet. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Joe Burton and Tim Stevens (2023). System, alliance, domain: a three-frame analysis of NATO's contribution to cyber stability. In R. Chesney, J. Shires and M. Smeets, eds. Cyberspace and Instability. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,] pp. 129-152.
• Tim Stevens and Camino Kavanagh (2021). Cyber power in international relations. In P. Cornish, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Cyber Security. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 66-81.
• Tim Stevens (2021). United Kingdom: Pragmatism and adaptability in the cyber realm. In Scott N. Romaniuk and Mary Manjikian, eds., Routledge Companion to Global Cyber-Security Strategy. New York: Routledge, pp. 191-200.
• Tim Stevens (2019). Strategic cyberterrorism: Problems of ends, ways and means. In D. Martin Jones, P. Schulte, C. Ungerer and M.L.R. Smith, eds., Handbook of Terrorism and Counter Terrorism Post 9/11. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 42-52
• Tim Stevens (2019). Global code: Power and the weak regulation of cyberweapons. In N. Hynek, O. Ditrych and V. Stritecky, eds., Regulating Global Security: Insights from Conventional and Unconventional Regimes. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 271-295.

Research articles:

• Joe Devanny, Ciaran Martin and Tim Stevens (2021) On the strategic consequences of digital espionage. Journal of Cyber Policy 6(3): 429-450
• Columba Peoples and Tim Stevens (2020). At the outer limits of the international: Orbital infrastructures and the technopolitics of planetary (in)security. European Journal of International Security 5(3): 294-314.
• David Gioe, Michael S. Goodman and Tim Stevens (2020). Intelligence in the cyber era: Evolution or revolution? Political Science Quarterly 135(2): 191-224.
• Tim Stevens (2020). Knowledge in the grey zone: AI and cybersecurity. Digital War.

Policy papers:

• Joe Devanny, Andrew Dwyer, Amy Ertan and Tim Stevens (2021). The National Cyber Force that Britain Needs? London: Policy Institute at King’s.
• Tim Stevens and Kevin O’Brien (2019). Brexit and cyber security. The RUSI Journal 164(3): 22-30.
• Kevin O’Brien, Richard Overill, Benedict Wilkinson, Tomass Pildegovics and Steve Hill (2019). UK Active Cyber Defence: A Public Good for the Private Sector. Policy Institute at King’s & King’s Cyber Security Research Group.
• Lilly Pijnenburg Muller and Tim Stevens (2017). Upholding the NATO Cyber Pledge. Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.

Media articles:

• The AI-cyber nexus: mending defences, recasting threats. European Science-Media Hub, 7 July 2021.
• Huawei and UK foreign policy. The UK in a Changing Europe, 21 July 2020.
• What the Huawei affair means for Anglo-American security cooperation. The UK in a Changing Europe, 24 May 2019.
• UK cybersecurity and Brexit. The UK in a Changing Europe, 14 January 2019.

Teaching modules

Dr Stevens is on research leave in 2022-23.

PhD Supervision

PhD students:

• Carol Bernard 
• Ian Williams 
• Paul Withers