James Shires
Biographic Data
| ID | 4096660 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James Shires |
| GIVEN NAMES | James |
| FAMILY NAME | Shires |
| SIGNATURE | SHIRES J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Leiden University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7481-4037 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 18 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The promises and pitfalls of cryptocurrencies and blockchain for marginalized communities
Cryptocurrencies, and the blockchain technology that underlies them, have attracted much attention over the last decade from scholars, tech communities, financial institutions, states and more. The extreme volatility of the cryptocurrency market has made some people very rich and cost others almost everything. Importantly, there are many indications that marginalized communities are especially attracted to this new technology while being more vul…
Masculinist Actionism: Gender and Strategic Change in US Cyber Strategy
How do gender hierarchies inform processes of strategic change? Drawing upon feminist institutionalism and security studies, we argue that gender hierarchies form the boundaries of acceptability for strategic change. We conduct a qualitative feminist analysis of cyber strategy policy documents and expert commentary around a 2018 shift in US cyber strategy. We identify two ideal-typical modes of masculinity-military and "tech"-as influential in co…
Digital recognition: Cybersecurity and internet infrastructure in UAE-Israel diplomacy
The 2020 Israel-UAE Abraham Accords normalized these states' relations, with heavy emphasis on digital technologies. International Relations theories of recognition, however, hardly consider the role digital technologies play in establishing recognition between states. What role, then, did digital technologies play in this landmark shift in UAE-Israel recognition? This article uses three aspects of digital technologies in the UAE-Israel case-cybe…
Cyberspace and Instability
A wide range of actors have publicly identified cyber stability as a key policy goal but the meaning of stability in the context of cyber policy remains vague and contested: vague because most policymakers and experts do not define cyber stability when they use the concept; contested because they propose measures that rely – often implicitly – on divergent understandings of cyber stability. This is a thorough investigation of instability within c…
Career connections: Transnational expert networks and multilateral cybercrime negotiations
The Council of Europe's Budapest Convention on cybercrime (2001) remains a key landmark in multilateral governance on cybersecurity. Negotiated over two decades ago, this regional agreement gains renewed significance today through its enduring impact, its rarity as a binding multilateral agreement on cyber-issues, and its role in shaping the debate on free speech and the criminalization of online content. This article asks how the almost-total ex…
Toward a Decolonial Cybersecurity: Interrogating the Racial-Epistemic Hierarchies That Constitute Cybersecurity Expertise
Beginning with a startling pattern of racialized practices in cybersecurity expert communities in the Gulf States, and drawing on the decolonial insights of the modernity/coloniality school, this article argues that race operates as a marker of who is a legitimate knower of dominant Euro-American knowledges of cybersecurity and who is not, and therefore whose understandings, experiences, and practices of cybersecurity are privileged.In demonstrat…
Cybersecurity in the GCC: From Economic Development to Geopolitical Controversy
While the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are not alone in their increasing exposure to the negative side effects of greater digital dependency, their status as technological leaders—not just in the region, but also in the world—means that they are vulnerable to a variety of cybersecurity threats. This article examines the trajectory of cybersecurity in the GCC states, exploring the main threats, the role of the GCC states in regional an…
The better angels of our digital nature? Offensive cyber capabilities and state violence
Transformations in state violence are intimately associated with technological capacity. Like previous era-defining technologies, global digital networks have changed state violence. Offensive cyber capabilities (OCCs) appear to constitute a major technological development that offers the potential for reducing state violence. This article asks: are OCCs really the better angels of our digital nature? Current scholarship in strategic studies, ado…
Offensive Cyber Capabilities and State Violence: Three Logics of Integration
Offensive cyber capabilities (OCCs) are the combination of people, technologies, and organizational attributes that jointly enable offensive cyber operations: the adversarial manipulation of digital services or networks. Most works on OCCs focus on their (de-)escalatory potential in terms of diplomatic tension, instability, or power. This article argues for a re-orientation toward the normatively prior question of their relative violence. It asks…
Middle East Cyber Security: Threats and Opportunities
Cyber-noir: Cybersecurity and popular culture
Cybersecurity experts foster a perception of cybersecurity as a gloomy underworld in which the good guys must resort to unconventional tactics to keep at bay a motley group of threats to the digital safety of unsuspecting individuals, businesses, and governments. This article takes this framing seriously, drawing on film studies scholarship that identifies certain aesthetic themes as associated with moral ambiguity in noir films. This article int…
Enacting Expertise: Ritual and Risk in Cybersecurity
This article applies the concept of ritual to cybersecurity expertise, beginning with the cybersecurity “skills gap”: the perceived lack of suitably qualified professionals necessary to tackle contemporary cybersecurity challenges. It proposes that cybersecurity expertise is best understood as a skilled performance which satisfies decision-makers’ demands for risk management. This alternative understanding of cybersecurity expertise enables inves…
Enacting Expertise: Ritual and Risk in Cybersecurity
This article applies the concept of ritual to cybersecurity expertise, beginning with the cybersecurity “skills gap”: the perceived lack of suitably qualified professionals necessary to tackle contemporary cybersecurity challenges. It proposes that cybersecurity expertise is best understood as a skilled performance which satisfies decision-makers’ demands for risk management. This alternative understanding of cybersecurity expertise enables inves…
The better angels of our digital nature? Offensive cyber capabilities and state violence
Transformations in state violence are intimately associated with technological capacity. Like previous era-defining technologies, global digital networks have changed state violence. Offensive cyber capabilities (OCCs) appear to constitute a major technological development that offers the potential for reducing state violence. This article asks: are OCCs really the better angels of our digital nature? Current scholarship in strategic studies, ado…
Cyber-noir: Cybersecurity and popular culture
Cybersecurity experts foster a perception of cybersecurity as a gloomy underworld in which the good guys must resort to unconventional tactics to keep at bay a motley group of threats to the digital safety of unsuspecting individuals, businesses, and governments. This article takes this framing seriously, drawing on film studies scholarship that identifies certain aesthetic themes as associated with moral ambiguity in noir films. This article int…
Career connections: Transnational expert networks and multilateral cybercrime negotiations
The Council of Europe's Budapest Convention on cybercrime (2001) remains a key landmark in multilateral governance on cybersecurity. Negotiated over two decades ago, this regional agreement gains renewed significance today through its enduring impact, its rarity as a binding multilateral agreement on cyber-issues, and its role in shaping the debate on free speech and the criminalization of online content. This article asks how the almost-total ex…
Masculinist Actionism: Gender and Strategic Change in US Cyber Strategy
How do gender hierarchies inform processes of strategic change? Drawing upon feminist institutionalism and security studies, we argue that gender hierarchies form the boundaries of acceptability for strategic change. We conduct a qualitative feminist analysis of cyber strategy policy documents and expert commentary around a 2018 shift in US cyber strategy. We identify two ideal-typical modes of masculinity-military and "tech"-as influential in co…
Digital recognition: Cybersecurity and internet infrastructure in UAE-Israel diplomacy
The 2020 Israel-UAE Abraham Accords normalized these states' relations, with heavy emphasis on digital technologies. International Relations theories of recognition, however, hardly consider the role digital technologies play in establishing recognition between states. What role, then, did digital technologies play in this landmark shift in UAE-Israel recognition? This article uses three aspects of digital technologies in the UAE-Israel case-cybe…
Toward a Decolonial Cybersecurity: Interrogating the Racial-Epistemic Hierarchies That Constitute Cybersecurity Expertise
Beginning with a startling pattern of racialized practices in cybersecurity expert communities in the Gulf States, and drawing on the decolonial insights of the modernity/coloniality school, this article argues that race operates as a marker of who is a legitimate knower of dominant Euro-American knowledges of cybersecurity and who is not, and therefore whose understandings, experiences, and practices of cybersecurity are privileged.In demonstrat…
Enacting Expertise: Ritual and Risk in Cybersecurity
This article applies the concept of ritual to cybersecurity expertise, beginning with the cybersecurity “skills gap”: the perceived lack of suitably qualified professionals necessary to tackle contemporary cybersecurity challenges. It proposes that cybersecurity expertise is best understood as a skilled performance which satisfies decision-makers’ demands for risk management. This alternative understanding of cybersecurity expertise enables inves…
Cyber-noir: Cybersecurity and popular culture
Cybersecurity experts foster a perception of cybersecurity as a gloomy underworld in which the good guys must resort to unconventional tactics to keep at bay a motley group of threats to the digital safety of unsuspecting individuals, businesses, and governments. This article takes this framing seriously, drawing on film studies scholarship that identifies certain aesthetic themes as associated with moral ambiguity in noir films. This article int…
The better angels of our digital nature? Offensive cyber capabilities and state violence
Transformations in state violence are intimately associated with technological capacity. Like previous era-defining technologies, global digital networks have changed state violence. Offensive cyber capabilities (OCCs) appear to constitute a major technological development that offers the potential for reducing state violence. This article asks: are OCCs really the better angels of our digital nature? Current scholarship in strategic studies, ado…
Offensive Cyber Capabilities and State Violence: Three Logics of Integration
Offensive cyber capabilities (OCCs) are the combination of people, technologies, and organizational attributes that jointly enable offensive cyber operations: the adversarial manipulation of digital services or networks. Most works on OCCs focus on their (de-)escalatory potential in terms of diplomatic tension, instability, or power. This article argues for a re-orientation toward the normatively prior question of their relative violence. It asks…
Middle East Cyber Security: Threats and Opportunities
Cybersecurity in the GCC: From Economic Development to Geopolitical Controversy
While the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are not alone in their increasing exposure to the negative side effects of greater digital dependency, their status as technological leaders—not just in the region, but also in the world—means that they are vulnerable to a variety of cybersecurity threats. This article examines the trajectory of cybersecurity in the GCC states, exploring the main threats, the role of the GCC states in regional an…
Cyberspace and Instability
A wide range of actors have publicly identified cyber stability as a key policy goal but the meaning of stability in the context of cyber policy remains vague and contested: vague because most policymakers and experts do not define cyber stability when they use the concept; contested because they propose measures that rely – often implicitly – on divergent understandings of cyber stability. This is a thorough investigation of instability within c…
Career connections: Transnational expert networks and multilateral cybercrime negotiations
The Council of Europe's Budapest Convention on cybercrime (2001) remains a key landmark in multilateral governance on cybersecurity. Negotiated over two decades ago, this regional agreement gains renewed significance today through its enduring impact, its rarity as a binding multilateral agreement on cyber-issues, and its role in shaping the debate on free speech and the criminalization of online content. This article asks how the almost-total ex…
Toward a Decolonial Cybersecurity: Interrogating the Racial-Epistemic Hierarchies That Constitute Cybersecurity Expertise
Beginning with a startling pattern of racialized practices in cybersecurity expert communities in the Gulf States, and drawing on the decolonial insights of the modernity/coloniality school, this article argues that race operates as a marker of who is a legitimate knower of dominant Euro-American knowledges of cybersecurity and who is not, and therefore whose understandings, experiences, and practices of cybersecurity are privileged.In demonstrat…
Masculinist Actionism: Gender and Strategic Change in US Cyber Strategy
How do gender hierarchies inform processes of strategic change? Drawing upon feminist institutionalism and security studies, we argue that gender hierarchies form the boundaries of acceptability for strategic change. We conduct a qualitative feminist analysis of cyber strategy policy documents and expert commentary around a 2018 shift in US cyber strategy. We identify two ideal-typical modes of masculinity-military and "tech"-as influential in co…
Digital recognition: Cybersecurity and internet infrastructure in UAE-Israel diplomacy
The 2020 Israel-UAE Abraham Accords normalized these states' relations, with heavy emphasis on digital technologies. International Relations theories of recognition, however, hardly consider the role digital technologies play in establishing recognition between states. What role, then, did digital technologies play in this landmark shift in UAE-Israel recognition? This article uses three aspects of digital technologies in the UAE-Israel case-cybe…
The promises and pitfalls of cryptocurrencies and blockchain for marginalized communities
Cryptocurrencies, and the blockchain technology that underlies them, have attracted much attention over the last decade from scholars, tech communities, financial institutions, states and more. The extreme volatility of the cryptocurrency market has made some people very rich and cost others almost everything. Importantly, there are many indications that marginalized communities are especially attracted to this new technology while being more vul…
Computer Science (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies (9 works) · Computer security (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Politics (5 works) · Information and Cyber Security (4 works) · The Internet (4 works)