Can moments of viral media activity transform into enduring activist movements? The killing of Cecil the lion by a trophy hunter in Zimbabwe in 2015 attracted global attention and generated enduring conservation activism in the form of monetary donations to the research unit that was studying him (WildCRU). Utilizing a longitudinal survey design, we found that intensely dysphoric reactions to Cecil's death triggered especially strong social cohesion (i.e., “identity fusion”) amongst donors. Over a 6-month period, identity fusion to WildCRU increased amongst donors.

Lucas Kello's chapter on “Cyber Security: Gridlock and Innovation”  has been published in David Held and Thomas Hale, eds., Beyond Gridlock (Cambridge: Polity, 2017).

Could offensive cyber operations provide strategic value? If so, how and under what conditions? While a growing number of states are said to be interested in developing offensive cyber capabilities, there is a sense that state leaders and policy makers still do not have a strong conception of its strategic advantages and limitations.

In the issue, Prof Fawcett brings together 15 articles published between 1926 and 2017 which provide an insight into the key political events affecting the region.

Valentin Weber's article in The Journal of Cyber Policy argues that a link between U.S. cyber strategy and U.S. grand strategy is largely missing.

Across the world, states are establishing military cyber commands or similar units to develop offensive cyber capabilities. One of the key dilemmas faced by these states is whether (and how) to integrate their intelligence and military capabilities to develop a meaningful offensive cyber capacity. This topic, however, has received little theoretical treatment.

In February 2017 Scientific American featured a special issue, which revolved around the question: "will democracy survive big data and artificial intelligence." According to the issue, humanity is undergoing a profound technological transformation, and the advent of large-scale social and behavioral automation would change how human societies will be organized and managed.