This page contains a list of my publications. When possible I have provided full-text copies for download or links to full-text copies elsewhere on the Net.
Books
Robert W. Gehl & Sean Lawson, Social Engineering: How Crowdmasters, Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls Created a New Form of Manipulative Communication, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, expected early 2022. (Full Text)
Cybersecurity Discourse in the United States: Cyber-Doom Rhetoric and Beyond, London: Routledge, 2020.
Nonlinear Science and Warfare: Chaos, Complexity, and the United States Military in the Information Age, London: Routledge, 2014.
Marouf Hasian, Jr., Sean Lawson, and Megan D. McFarlane, The Rhetorical Invention of America’s National Security State, Lexington Books, 2015.
Peer Reviewed Essays
Sean Lawson & Michael K. Middleton. (2019, March) Cyber Pearl Harbor: Analogy, Fear, and the Framing of Cyber Security Threats in the United States, 1991-2016, First Monday, https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/9623/7736.
Sean Lawson, Sara K. Yeo, Ethan Green, and Haoran Yu, The Cyber-Doom Effect: The Impact of Fear Appeals in the U.S. Cyber Security Debate, in N.Pissanidis, H.Rõigas, M.Veenendaal (Eds.), Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Cyber Conflict: Cyber Power, pgs. 65-80 (IEEE & NATO CCDCOE Publications, 2016). [PDF]
Bringing Cyber Back into Cyberwar Discourse, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. (Fall 2015), pgs. 212-222.
Cynthia Love, Sean Lawson, and Avery Holton, (Winter 2014) News from Above: First Amendment Implications of the Federal Aviation Administration Ban on Commercial Drones, Boston University Journal of Science & Technology Law.
Avery Holton, Sean Lawson, and Cynthia Love (December 2014), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Opportunities, Barriers, and the Future of Drone Journalism, Journalism Practice. OnlineFirst. (Abstract).
Kevin DeLuca, Sean Lawson, Ye Sun, “Occupy Wall Street on the Public Screens of Social Media: The Many Framings of the Birth of a Protest Movement,” Communication, Culture & Critique. 5(4) (2012) (Abstract).
The U.S. Military’s Social Media Civil War: Technology as Antagonism in Discourses of Information-Age Conflict, Cambridge Review of International Affairs. 27(2) 2014. (Abstract).
Putting the War in Cyber War: Metaphor, Analogy, and Cyber Security Discourse in the United States, First Monday. 17(7) 2012. (Full text)
Motivating Cybersecurity: Assessing the Status of Critical Infrastructure as an Object of Cyber Threats, in Securing Critical Infrastructures and Industrial Control Systems: Approaches for Threat Protection, Badii, Atta and Laing, Christopher (eds.) (Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2013). (Book)
“Beyond Cyber-Doom: Assessing the Limits of Hypothetical Scenarios in the Framing of Cyber-Threats,” Journal of Information Technology & Politics. 10(1) 2013. (Abstract)
“Articulation, Antagonism, and Intercalation in Western Military Imaginaries,” Security Dialogue 42, 1 (2011): 39-56. (Abstract)
“Surfing on the Edge of Chaos: Nonlinear Science and the Emergence of a Doctrine of Preventive War in the United States,” Social Studies of Science 41, 4 (2011): 563-584. (Abstract)
“Cold War Systems Science and the Emergence of a Nonlinear View of War in the U.S. Military,” Cold War History 11, 3 (2011): 421-440. (Abstract)
Book Chapters
Sean Lawson & Michael K. Middleton (2019), Communication Studies of/and Cybersecurity, in Taylor, Bryan C. & Bean, Hamilton (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Communication and Security, London: Routledge.
Marouf Hasian and Sean Lawson, (2018) The Syrian Rebellion and the ‘First Social Media War’ in Dee, J. (ed) From Tahrir Square to Gezi Park: Social Networks as Facilitators of Social Movements, New York: Peter Lang.
Kevin DeLuca and Sean Lawson, (2014) Occupy Wall Street and Social Media News Sharing in the Wake of Institutional Journalism, pgs. 361-375 in Allan, S. and Thorsen, E. (eds), Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives, Volume II, New York: Peter Lang.
Motivating Cybersecurity: Assessing the Status of Critical Infrastructure as an Object of Cyber Threats, in Laing, C., Badii, A. and Vickers, P. (eds) Securing Critical Infrastructures and Critical Control Systems: Approaches for Threat Protection, pp. 168-89. 2013.
“Beyond Cyber-Doom: Cyberattack Scenarios and the Evidence of History,” in Cyber Warfare: Critical Perspectives, Paul Ducheine, Frans Osinga, and Joseph Soeters (eds.) (The Hague, The Netherlands: Asser Press, forthcoming): 276-307. (Buy the book)
Review Articles
“A Review of Gameplay Mode: War, Simulation, and Technoculture,” by Patrick Crogan, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 34(3). 2012.
“A Review of Science, Strategy and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd,” by Frans P. B. Osinga, Emergence, Vol. , No. 1 (2007): 225-227. (Full text)
“Water Scarcity, Politics, and Conflict in the Middle East,” Arab Studies Journal (Fall 2000/Spring 2001): 187-195. (Full-text not available)
Newsletters
“Virtual Mind Control: Nonviolence as the Pinnacle of Excellence for Information Age Conflict,” Technoscience 20, 3 (2004): 9-13. (Full text)
Web-based
Cynthia Love, Sean Lawson, and Avery Holton, (September 2014) News from Above: First Amendment Implications of the Federal Aviation Administration Ban on Commercial Drones, Mercatus Working Paper. Mercatus Center, George Mason University. 2014. (Full text).
“Beyond Cyber-Doom: Cyberattack Scenarios and the Evidence of History. Mercatus Center Working Paper, No. 10-77 (January 2011). (Full text)
“Cyber-Intifada Resource Guide: A Resource for Tracking the Intifada in Cyberspace,” The Arab Information Project (Georgetown University, Spring 2001); formerly (but no longer) available from http://www.georgetown.edu/research/arabtech/innovations.htm.
Co-author with Tim Ballard, Jason Pate, Gary Ackerman, and Diana McCauley, “Chronology of Aum Shinrikyo’s CBW Activities,” Center for Nonproliferation Studies Reports (Monterey: Monterey Institute of International Studies, 2001).
Encyclopedia
Entries for Weapons of Mass Destruction: An Encyclopedia of Worldwide Policy Technology, and History, Eric A. Croddy, James J. Wirtz, and Jeffrey A. Larsen (Eds) (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, December 2004). Including:
- “Al-Qaeda”
- “Al-Shifa”
- “Cuban Missile Crisis”
- “Enola Gay”
- “On the Beach”
- “Osama bin Laden”
Unpublished Papers
“The Cyber-Intifada: Activism, Hactivism, and Cyber-Terrorism in the Context of the ‘New Terrorism’,” seminar paper for the course, Information Warfare and Security, taught by Dr. Dorothy Denning, Georgetown University, Fall 2001. (Full text)