Dr. Jelena Vićić

Welcome! I am assistant professor of cybersecurity at Leiden University with the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA). Previously, I worked as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) at the Center for Peace and Security Studies (cPASS) and Cyber Escalation Lab. I received a doctorate in political science from the University of Cincinnati, with focus fields in international relations and methodology, and a specialization in cyber security studies. Other positions include working as a predoctoral fellow at the Center for Cyber Strategy and Policy (2020-2021), and I also held the Isabel and Mary Neff Fellowship for outstanding women in arts and sciences (2019-2020).

I am an alumna of the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna where I completed Master of Advanced International Studies program, and I also hold a bachelor degree from the American University in Bulgaria.

Broadly, my research explores the interaction of technology and international conflict with focus on competition in and through cyberspace. My work examines the fundamental dynamics behind why cyberspace has become an unstable environment of competition and potential conflict, and what that means for international and national policy. Topics I am currently working on include: cyber escalation, disinformation, and missingness in cyber events data.  

In my research, I employ text as data, as well as experimental methodology to build simulation-based experiments, for the study of operational escalation dynamics in cyberspace. 

You can reach me at j.vicic@fgga.leidenuniv.nl.

Follow my work on Google Scholar and LinkedIn.