NRC Call for Cyberdeterence Papers

I thought ASIL and the program organizers did a wonderful job with this year’s Annual Meeting.  I particularly appreciated the opportunity to chair a panel, War and Law in Cyberspace.  In addition to a discussion of the technological capacities of cyberattacks and how they map onto the jus ad bellum and the jus in bello, we had a good discussion of what became the over-riding topic of this year’s event — unmanned aerial vehicles (if you’ve not read Jack Beard’s AJIL article on this topic, you should do so (but a subscription is required)).  Meanwhile, I learned about the following call for papers that may be of interest to some of our readers: 

The National Research Council (NRC) is undertaking a project entitled Deterring Cyberattacks: Informing Strategies and Developing Options for U.S. Policy. The project is aimed at fostering a broad, multidisciplinary examination of strategies for deterring cyberattacks on the United States and the possible utility of these strategies for the U.S. government. To stimulate work in this area, the NRC is offering one or more monetary prizes for excellent contributed papers that address one or more of the questions of interest found in its call for papers, which can be found here.

Abstracts of less than 500 words are due April 1, 2010. First drafts are due May 21, 2010, final drafts July 9, 2010. The broad themes of interest include
A. Theoretical Models for Cyberdeterrence
B. Cyberdeterrence and Declaratory Policy
C. Operational Considerations in Cyberdeterrence
D. Regimes of Reciprocal/Consensual Limitations Regarding Cyberattack
E. Cyberdeterrence in a Larger Context
F. The Dynamics of Action/Reaction in Cyber Conflict
G. Escalation Dynamics of Cyber Conflict

In the call for papers, a number of more specific questions are contained within each theme. A variety of relevant collateral issues are addressed as well.

For those of you subject to financial incentives, note the monetary prize! The NRC point of contact is Herb Lin, who can be reached at 202-334-3191, hlin@nas.edu.

[UPDATE:  The deadline for abstracts has been extended to April 15.]