Christopher Whyte
Biographic Data
| ID | 3947392 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Christopher Whyte |
| GIVEN NAMES | Christopher |
| FAMILY NAME | Whyte |
| SIGNATURE | WHYTE C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Virginia Commonwealth University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4522-465X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 74 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1993 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Building centaur responders
This article examines the preparedness of emergency management (EM) for addressing questions pertaining to artificial intelligence (AI), encompassing its benefits to EM missions, the potential biases, the societal impacts, and more. We pinpoint two key shortcomings in early EM research on AI: (i) insufficient discussion of both AI's history and evolution; and (ii) a lack of frameworks for organising AI‐related knowledge‐building efforts. We offer…
From Azusa to Asbury
In early 2023, Asbury University drew international attention when it testified to revival. Classes ceased as students and faculty joined in an uninterrupted worship service in response to a claimed move of the Spirit. In this article, I consider the commonality of aesthetic arguments that were present in affirmations, critiques, and interrogations of the events unfolding at Asbury. Following this, through a survey of the historic cooption of aes…
Bolts from the blue
Searching for cyberspace
Finding the thieves amongst the liars
How do cyber attacks aid attempts to generate influence? This article argues that cyber-enabled influence operations (CEIO) are more varied in form than is often recognised by scholars. We describe four kinds of CEIO activities – preparatory attacks, manipulative attacks, attacks in parallel, and influence-enabling – and observe that the type most often referenced by scholars (manipulative attacks) is the one whose utility is most substantially c…
Reimagining the cult of the divisive
Beyond Religion
Abuse, when committed by spiritual authority figures, can have far-reaching consequences for church communities well after perpetrators have been removed and held accountable. In attending to survivors, a host of issues may come to light, including but not limited to, organizational complicity in abuse, institutional marginalization of the vulnerable, and the revelation that worship spaces can be traumatically triggering. The work of scholars lik…
The Subversion Aversion Paradox
Recent work on information technology and cyber conflict in IR has turned to the rapidly expanding phenomena that is cyber-enabled influence operations (CEIO). CEIO represent a unique interaction of operational logics that diverge from the exceptions of either cyber or influence campaigns. In order to examine when states choose to deploy cyber operations in support of IO, I turn to a new dataset—the Counter-Society Influence Operations (CSIO) dat…
Ai Ir
Over the past decade, rapid progress in artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed a range of areas, from medicine to strategic games and communication technologies, from art and culture to everyday office work. It would be naïve to assume that this evolution does not permeate and alter international affairs. Building on, and solidifying, a thriving yet still fragmented emerging literature on “AI IR,” this forum gathers several critical diagnos…
Terror through the Looking Glass
Researchers and pundits alike regularly describe terrorism as being a theatrical performance that depends on publicity to build recognition, garner attention and command legitimation. Clearly, the mechanical contours of the information environment matter when it comes to determining the opportunities and challenges for both terrorist and counterterrorist success. This article addresses arguably the most singularly significant intermediary for inf…
Learning to trust Skynet
The use of AI to automate defense and intelligence tasks is increasing. And yet, little is known about how algorithmic analyses, data capture, and decisions will be perceived by elite decision-makers. This article presents the results of two experiments that explore manifestations of AI systems in the cyber conflict decision-making loop. Though findings suggest that technical expertise positively impacts respondents’ ability to gauge the potentia…
Cyberspace is what states make of it
Why do some strategic concepts come to dominate over alternative, often-entrenched views of warfighting? And what determines the staying power and proneness to change over time of the prevailing vision? Focusing on cyberspace, I describe the Internet as an artifact interpreted differently by competing interest groups. I show that reconciliation of these interpretations comes from individuals with the position and motivation to make technology wor…
Cyber uncertainties
Evidence suggests that operations in cyberspace are employed alongside established instruments of foreign policy, thus moving away from the notion of the revolutionary potential of cyberspace. Therefore, it is crucial for us to understand the motivations and processes that facilitate decisions to operate in cyberspace. In their contribution to this edited volume, CSS' Miguel Alberto Gomez and Christopher Whyte discuss the outcome of pseudo-experi…
Breaking the Myth of Cyber Doom
Physical damage resulting from cyber operations continues to reinforce the “cyber doom” narrative across societies dependent on information and communication technology. This is paradoxical given the absence of severe, lasting consequences from cyber operations and the relative restraint exercised by cyber-capable actors. Moreover, the mass adoption of vulnerable digital systems raises questions whether or not individuals’ dread cyber insecurity …
Information Warfare in the Age of Cyber Conflict
Of commissars, cults and conspiratorial communities
The goal of this article is to place the cultivation of virtual conspiratorial communities by prosecutors of influence operations within a theoretical structure of information warfare as “democracy hacking.” We join emerging scholarship in describing democracies as information systems wherein maintaining high standards for the quality, origination, credibility and perceived freedom of information in discourse is necessary for ensuring the moderat…
Beyond tit-for-tat in cyberspace
At present, most scholarship on the potential for escalation in cyberspace couches analysis in terms of the technological dynamics of the domain for relative power maneuvering. The result has been a conceptualisation of the logic of operation in cyberspace as one of ‘tit-for-tat’ exchanges motivated by attribution problems and limited opportunity for strategic gain. This article argues that this dominant perspective overlooks alternative notions …
Gendering the Nation
Too often seen as a ghost from the past, nationalism has resurfaced as a major factor in European politics and culture. A powerful commitment to national autonomy has marked Scottish writing throughout the twentieth century. How has the emergence of new voices from feminist, gay and lesbian critics transformed that commitment? How critical and pluralistic can the new nationalisms be? This collection serves notice that the tradition is being read …
Algorithms at War
How might rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies affect the construction and application of military power? Despite the emerging importance of AI systems in defense modernization initiatives, there has been little empirical or theoretical study from the perspective of the international relations (IR) and security studies fields. This article addresses this shortcoming by describing AI developments and assessing the manner in …
Cryptoterrorism
Much recent policy discourse has pivoted on the relationship between terrorist campaigns and an emergent feature of the global financial landscape in the form of cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies are a subset of digital currencies that are distributed by the developers thereof. The various unique features of cryptocurrencies have led to discussion in punditry about how terrorists could benefit from this new mode of financial transaction but few …
Can We Change the Topic, Please? Assessing the Theoretical Construction of International Relations Scholarship
A number of international relations scholars charge that the field suffers from academic religiosity: factional divisions along theoretical lines that limit research potential and create unnecessary bias against certain approaches. I explore this view of the field by applying a topic-modeling algorithm to a corpus of article abstracts from prominent journals in international relations. I generate a new dataset of information on international rela…
Dissecting the Digital World
Though focused on realizing markedly different analytic outcomes, each of the four books under review here approaches the task of balancing the technological ramifications of advancing digital developments against the implications of relevant sociopolitical context with a reasonable degree of success. Taken together, the books present several significant messages not only about prospects for cyber conflict but also about the aims and imperatives …
Crossing the Digital Divide
In studying topics in cyber conflict and cyber-security governance, scholars must ask—arguably more so than has been the case with any other emergent research agenda—where the epistemological and ontological value of different methods lies. This article describes the unique, dual methodological challenges inherent in the multifaceted program on global cyber-security and asks how problematic they are for scholarly efforts to construct knowledge ab…
Ending cyber coercion
The use of coercive instruments of statecraft and military power to affect changes in strategic behavior is a common feature of international politics. Recently, a variety of state and sub-state actors have attempted to utilize cyber instruments of disruption and intrusion to bring about favorable outcomes. This article notes that digital instruments for coercion offer limited potential for effective compellent effect in world affairs. Neverthele…
Developed States’ Vulnerability to Economic Disruption Online
Breaking the Myth of Cyber Doom
Physical damage resulting from cyber operations continues to reinforce the “cyber doom” narrative across societies dependent on information and communication technology. This is paradoxical given the absence of severe, lasting consequences from cyber operations and the relative restraint exercised by cyber-capable actors. Moreover, the mass adoption of vulnerable digital systems raises questions whether or not individuals’ dread cyber insecurity …
Algorithms at War
How might rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies affect the construction and application of military power? Despite the emerging importance of AI systems in defense modernization initiatives, there has been little empirical or theoretical study from the perspective of the international relations (IR) and security studies fields. This article addresses this shortcoming by describing AI developments and assessing the manner in …
Can We Change the Topic, Please? Assessing the Theoretical Construction of International Relations Scholarship
A number of international relations scholars charge that the field suffers from academic religiosity: factional divisions along theoretical lines that limit research potential and create unnecessary bias against certain approaches. I explore this view of the field by applying a topic-modeling algorithm to a corpus of article abstracts from prominent journals in international relations. I generate a new dataset of information on international rela…
Crossing the Digital Divide
In studying topics in cyber conflict and cyber-security governance, scholars must ask—arguably more so than has been the case with any other emergent research agenda—where the epistemological and ontological value of different methods lies. This article describes the unique, dual methodological challenges inherent in the multifaceted program on global cyber-security and asks how problematic they are for scholarly efforts to construct knowledge ab…
Thinking inside the (black) box
Scholarship on agenda setting and electoral politics often suffers from lack of access to data on deliberative processes, a shortcoming that often leads to inflexible theoretical outcomes. In this article, I assess the viability of a new data source—Google web search data—for use in social science research. Such data, when collected and applied appropriately, offer a unique lens through which information on patterns of information seeking can be …
Beyond tit-for-tat in cyberspace
At present, most scholarship on the potential for escalation in cyberspace couches analysis in terms of the technological dynamics of the domain for relative power maneuvering. The result has been a conceptualisation of the logic of operation in cyberspace as one of ‘tit-for-tat’ exchanges motivated by attribution problems and limited opportunity for strategic gain. This article argues that this dominant perspective overlooks alternative notions …
Cryptoterrorism
Much recent policy discourse has pivoted on the relationship between terrorist campaigns and an emergent feature of the global financial landscape in the form of cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies are a subset of digital currencies that are distributed by the developers thereof. The various unique features of cryptocurrencies have led to discussion in punditry about how terrorists could benefit from this new mode of financial transaction but few …
Ending cyber coercion
The use of coercive instruments of statecraft and military power to affect changes in strategic behavior is a common feature of international politics. Recently, a variety of state and sub-state actors have attempted to utilize cyber instruments of disruption and intrusion to bring about favorable outcomes. This article notes that digital instruments for coercion offer limited potential for effective compellent effect in world affairs. Neverthele…
Ai Ir
Over the past decade, rapid progress in artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed a range of areas, from medicine to strategic games and communication technologies, from art and culture to everyday office work. It would be naïve to assume that this evolution does not permeate and alter international affairs. Building on, and solidifying, a thriving yet still fragmented emerging literature on “AI IR,” this forum gathers several critical diagnos…
Learning to trust Skynet
The use of AI to automate defense and intelligence tasks is increasing. And yet, little is known about how algorithmic analyses, data capture, and decisions will be perceived by elite decision-makers. This article presents the results of two experiments that explore manifestations of AI systems in the cyber conflict decision-making loop. Though findings suggest that technical expertise positively impacts respondents’ ability to gauge the potentia…
Developed States’ Vulnerability to Economic Disruption Online
Gender and sexuality in ‘a drunk man’
The composer Hans Werner Henze once remarked that 'it would be really tedious if, in the course of time, the whole of dramatic literature was turned into operas' (Henze 1982, p. 100). It would be equally tedious were they all to be converted into feminist texts. Feminist theory is not some kind of mincing machine which material can be fed into indiscriminately, so as to produce undifferentiated affirmations of a series of preexisting ideological …
Thinking inside the (black) box
Scholarship on agenda setting and electoral politics often suffers from lack of access to data on deliberative processes, a shortcoming that often leads to inflexible theoretical outcomes. In this article, I assess the viability of a new data source—Google web search data—for use in social science research. Such data, when collected and applied appropriately, offer a unique lens through which information on patterns of information seeking can be …
Ending cyber coercion
The use of coercive instruments of statecraft and military power to affect changes in strategic behavior is a common feature of international politics. Recently, a variety of state and sub-state actors have attempted to utilize cyber instruments of disruption and intrusion to bring about favorable outcomes. This article notes that digital instruments for coercion offer limited potential for effective compellent effect in world affairs. Neverthele…
Developed States’ Vulnerability to Economic Disruption Online
Regional Structures, Domestic Pressures and Postcolonial Legitimacy
Dissecting the Digital World
Though focused on realizing markedly different analytic outcomes, each of the four books under review here approaches the task of balancing the technological ramifications of advancing digital developments against the implications of relevant sociopolitical context with a reasonable degree of success. Taken together, the books present several significant messages not only about prospects for cyber conflict but also about the aims and imperatives …
Crossing the Digital Divide
In studying topics in cyber conflict and cyber-security governance, scholars must ask—arguably more so than has been the case with any other emergent research agenda—where the epistemological and ontological value of different methods lies. This article describes the unique, dual methodological challenges inherent in the multifaceted program on global cyber-security and asks how problematic they are for scholarly efforts to construct knowledge ab…
Gendering the Nation
Too often seen as a ghost from the past, nationalism has resurfaced as a major factor in European politics and culture. A powerful commitment to national autonomy has marked Scottish writing throughout the twentieth century. How has the emergence of new voices from feminist, gay and lesbian critics transformed that commitment? How critical and pluralistic can the new nationalisms be? This collection serves notice that the tradition is being read …
Algorithms at War
How might rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies affect the construction and application of military power? Despite the emerging importance of AI systems in defense modernization initiatives, there has been little empirical or theoretical study from the perspective of the international relations (IR) and security studies fields. This article addresses this shortcoming by describing AI developments and assessing the manner in …
Cryptoterrorism
Much recent policy discourse has pivoted on the relationship between terrorist campaigns and an emergent feature of the global financial landscape in the form of cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies are a subset of digital currencies that are distributed by the developers thereof. The various unique features of cryptocurrencies have led to discussion in punditry about how terrorists could benefit from this new mode of financial transaction but few …
Can We Change the Topic, Please? Assessing the Theoretical Construction of International Relations Scholarship
A number of international relations scholars charge that the field suffers from academic religiosity: factional divisions along theoretical lines that limit research potential and create unnecessary bias against certain approaches. I explore this view of the field by applying a topic-modeling algorithm to a corpus of article abstracts from prominent journals in international relations. I generate a new dataset of information on international rela…
Information Warfare in the Age of Cyber Conflict
Of commissars, cults and conspiratorial communities
The goal of this article is to place the cultivation of virtual conspiratorial communities by prosecutors of influence operations within a theoretical structure of information warfare as “democracy hacking.” We join emerging scholarship in describing democracies as information systems wherein maintaining high standards for the quality, origination, credibility and perceived freedom of information in discourse is necessary for ensuring the moderat…
Beyond tit-for-tat in cyberspace
At present, most scholarship on the potential for escalation in cyberspace couches analysis in terms of the technological dynamics of the domain for relative power maneuvering. The result has been a conceptualisation of the logic of operation in cyberspace as one of ‘tit-for-tat’ exchanges motivated by attribution problems and limited opportunity for strategic gain. This article argues that this dominant perspective overlooks alternative notions …
Breaking the Myth of Cyber Doom
Physical damage resulting from cyber operations continues to reinforce the “cyber doom” narrative across societies dependent on information and communication technology. This is paradoxical given the absence of severe, lasting consequences from cyber operations and the relative restraint exercised by cyber-capable actors. Moreover, the mass adoption of vulnerable digital systems raises questions whether or not individuals’ dread cyber insecurity …
Cyber uncertainties
Evidence suggests that operations in cyberspace are employed alongside established instruments of foreign policy, thus moving away from the notion of the revolutionary potential of cyberspace. Therefore, it is crucial for us to understand the motivations and processes that facilitate decisions to operate in cyberspace. In their contribution to this edited volume, CSS' Miguel Alberto Gomez and Christopher Whyte discuss the outcome of pseudo-experi…
Learning to trust Skynet
The use of AI to automate defense and intelligence tasks is increasing. And yet, little is known about how algorithmic analyses, data capture, and decisions will be perceived by elite decision-makers. This article presents the results of two experiments that explore manifestations of AI systems in the cyber conflict decision-making loop. Though findings suggest that technical expertise positively impacts respondents’ ability to gauge the potentia…
Cyberspace is what states make of it
Why do some strategic concepts come to dominate over alternative, often-entrenched views of warfighting? And what determines the staying power and proneness to change over time of the prevailing vision? Focusing on cyberspace, I describe the Internet as an artifact interpreted differently by competing interest groups. I show that reconciliation of these interpretations comes from individuals with the position and motivation to make technology wor…
Beyond Religion
Abuse, when committed by spiritual authority figures, can have far-reaching consequences for church communities well after perpetrators have been removed and held accountable. In attending to survivors, a host of issues may come to light, including but not limited to, organizational complicity in abuse, institutional marginalization of the vulnerable, and the revelation that worship spaces can be traumatically triggering. The work of scholars lik…
The Subversion Aversion Paradox
Recent work on information technology and cyber conflict in IR has turned to the rapidly expanding phenomena that is cyber-enabled influence operations (CEIO). CEIO represent a unique interaction of operational logics that diverge from the exceptions of either cyber or influence campaigns. In order to examine when states choose to deploy cyber operations in support of IO, I turn to a new dataset—the Counter-Society Influence Operations (CSIO) dat…
Ai Ir
Over the past decade, rapid progress in artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed a range of areas, from medicine to strategic games and communication technologies, from art and culture to everyday office work. It would be naïve to assume that this evolution does not permeate and alter international affairs. Building on, and solidifying, a thriving yet still fragmented emerging literature on “AI IR,” this forum gathers several critical diagnos…
Terror through the Looking Glass
Researchers and pundits alike regularly describe terrorism as being a theatrical performance that depends on publicity to build recognition, garner attention and command legitimation. Clearly, the mechanical contours of the information environment matter when it comes to determining the opportunities and challenges for both terrorist and counterterrorist success. This article addresses arguably the most singularly significant intermediary for inf…
Finding the thieves amongst the liars
How do cyber attacks aid attempts to generate influence? This article argues that cyber-enabled influence operations (CEIO) are more varied in form than is often recognised by scholars. We describe four kinds of CEIO activities – preparatory attacks, manipulative attacks, attacks in parallel, and influence-enabling – and observe that the type most often referenced by scholars (manipulative attacks) is the one whose utility is most substantially c…
Reimagining the cult of the divisive
Building centaur responders
This article examines the preparedness of emergency management (EM) for addressing questions pertaining to artificial intelligence (AI), encompassing its benefits to EM missions, the potential biases, the societal impacts, and more. We pinpoint two key shortcomings in early EM research on AI: (i) insufficient discussion of both AI's history and evolution; and (ii) a lack of frameworks for organising AI‐related knowledge‐building efforts. We offer…
Political science (22 works) · Computer Science (19 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Law (13 works) · Law (13 works) · Computer security (12 works) · Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies (12 works) · Politics (12 works) · Cyberspace (9 works) · The Internet (8 works)