"A key component of our framework entails distinguishing between two qualitatively different types of secrecy in the cyber domain. The first — the use of secrecy at the planning and execution stages of an attack — is often a technical prerequisite for success. The second type of secrecy — whether to claim credit for an attack privately or publicly — is a political decision. While many factors plausibly drive credit-claiming or credit-shirking behavior, two in particular stand out as significant: (1) whether target compliance is the objective; and (2) whether the perpetrator is a state or a non-state actor."

"Early in the civil war there were significant cases of peer fragmentation producing dozens of new organizations that shared similar goals. This included organizations like the Al-Qassas Army, the Revolutionary Army, Jaysh al-Islam, and many others....Instead of supporting many of these organizations, providing weapons and training to a wide range of moderates, the United States should have chosen to back a single peer to create unity since parity might actually increase outbidding behavior as groups seek to gain an advantage."

International Security Program Research Fellow Evan Perkoski, a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, is the 2015 winner of the Patricia Weitsman Award for Outstanding International Security Studies Section Graduate Paper.  He received this award at the recent Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association, which was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, from February 18–21, 2015.