Varieties of International Cyber Strategies (VoICS): Text Analysis of National Cybersecurity Documents is a project that compares and contrasts the three main approaches to conceptualize national cybersecurity strategies (NSS): deterrence, norm-based approach (NBA) and cyber persistence engagement (CPE). Scholars and policymakers have initially conceptualized NSS in terms of deterrence or NBA. More recent academic research has demonstrated that these frameworks are inadequate for cyber space. As a result, Cyber Persistence Engagement (CPE) emerged as a third option.
The 1.3 version of the VoICS dataset on National Cybersecurity Strategies focuses on nations in Europe and North America and includes a total of 77 NCS of the states in the North Atlantic Area—NATO allies, EU members and Switzerland—released from 2003 until the end of 2023. It consists of 27 variables, including country and strategy identifiers, EU and NATO membership, their respective accession dates, and total length of the documents. VoICS include eighteen variables representing different measures of relative and absolute weights of the three NSS types—deterrence, NBA and CPE.
The 2.1 version of the VoICS dataset consists of 260 documents across the globe released from 2001 to 2025, including the documents listed in the earlier datasets. It consists of 31 variables, including country and strategy identifiers, document issue dates, links to issue date sources, the documents’ full name and whether the document is in English or has been translated. VoICS 2.1 dataset includes eighteen variables representing different measures of relative and absolute weights of the three NSS types—deterrence, NBA and CPE using the latest dictionary of words and phrases.
Additionally, the database has two separate datasets. The first one contains information about sub-national strategies issued by specific national agencies such as ministries or departments (e.g. ministry of defense, ministry of information and/ or digitization, ministry of foreign affairs and others), national cybersecurity agencies, and others. The second one includes data about relevant cybersecurity strategy documents issued by various international organizations. Both datasets will be made available later.
The text analysis in the VoICS in the 1.0-2.1datasets is based on official NSS documents provided by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence library and ENISA’s interactive map for National Cyber Security Strategies. Both sources rely on voluntary submission from the member states. Unfortunately, some official documents were not available or accessible or were not listed at all. Authors have used various sources and contacts with a variety of cyber attachés in Brussels to determine if any additional strategies were released and to obtain the missing documents.
The 18 text analysis variables compare and contrast the extent to which different NCS are associated with a specific strategy. They represent different frequency scores based either on words, phrases, or words and phrases combined. These calculations are associated with either deterrence, NBA, or CPE in each strategy. The authors have generated respective dictionaries for the three strategic ideas through which each of these approaches are operationalized. We have conducted a text analysis using WordStat text analysis software by Provialis ( https://provalisresearch.com/products/content-analysis-software/). Detailed codebooks for VoICS Datasets Versions 1.1 thru 2.1 along with the NSS dictionaries (versions 1.0 thru 2.1) have been included in this collection/ repository.
The process of generating dictionary associated with the three cybersecurity approaches involved several steps. First, upon reviewing the literature, the authors generated independently a list of words and phrases associated with each type of cybersecurity strategy. Second, the authors compared their lists to determine the degree of overlap in dictionary. Those words and phrases that included in at least two different lists were reviewed and, if there was consensus, were incorporated in the dictionary. Finally, words and phrases which were identified in only one of lists were once again reviewed and, in case there was a consensus among the authors, these were also included in the dictionary. Third, the lists of words and phrases associated with each NCS were updated on several instances when the authors agreed on the need to update and optimize their content.
This project was supported by the University of Cincinnati's undergraduate summer research at the University Honors Program in 2025 and 2026, where UHP Discover students are engaged in full-time summer research with UC faculty mentors in different disciplines across social sciences, humanities education, business, arts, and other disciplines. The authors are grateful for the research assistance and support provided by Nora Meier (2025) and Shifan Rashid (2026).
This NSS database provides important insights into how states in Europe, North America and the rest of the world conceptualize their national cybersecurity strategies. It is an excellent tool for researchers and policymakers to study the evolution of strategic thinking around the globe and to explore its different independent and dependent effects.
Can magnets repel hurricanes? Well, no... but maybe new magnet technology could play a role in helping prevent future hurricanes. Jett Barham, a 4th year materials engineering undergraduate at the University of Kentucky explores motivations behind research into rare-earth free magnets while sharing his experience as a part of the 2026 REALIZE program at UC.
What happens when the biggest barrier to scientific discovery isn’t a lack of ideas, but the cost of the tools themselves? In this episode, Jarin Earle, a junior in Mechanical Engineering at North Carolina A & T State University, shares how a summer research project designing a low-cost viscometer changed the way he thinks about engineering; not as a way to build machines, but as a way to expand who gets the opportunity to do science.
Rare earth elements. They are a hot topic in the news... but why? What technologies are they used in? Jett Barham, a materials engineering major at University of Kentucky, describes his summer doing research at University of Cincinnati and how new magnet research could shape the global energy landscape.
Data of monarchs subjected to righting response orientation trials under different artificial magnetic fields pre- and post-overwintering cold treatment.
This research analyzes the "syndemic" of mental stress and physical pain among 299 unregulated laborers in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Results reveal that psychological distress increased the risk of physical injury by 28-fold, highlighting a critical link between economic instability and worker health. These findings offer urgent parallels to the U.S. "gig economy," where delivery and warehouse workers face similar occupational injustices without safety nets. The presentation moves beyond ergonomics to propose a Social Justice Framework, challenging attendees to advocate for ethical supply chains and for mental health protections for vulnerable workers, both globally and locally.
Through my college journey, the terms “research” and “zero-emissions” have become central to my academic identity. Not just because they reflect both my lab experience and keen interest in sustainable tech, but because they evoke a personal question that many high school seniors and college underclassmen grapple with: what does it mean to be a scientist? I’m Trevon Collins, a mechanical engineering student at Tennessee Technological University. In this podcast episode, I’ll share the answers I’ve found through investigating age-old secrets of phase change and their implications for the green transition.
Kennedy Whiters lives by "Do not fear failure; rather, fear not trying." She participated in the REALIZE REU when she was a junior at Albany State University. Kennedy performed research on methanogens, a type of anaerobic bacteria that consumes carbon dioxide and turns it into natural gas, which we can use as a source of energy in power plants. In this episode, she describes her experience working in the lab of Prof Annie Rowe, where she found the lab group to be a good source of positive support, like her family.
This archeometric study analyzed local clay deposits at the Ingels Family Farm, settled in the Early Nineteenth Century in Bourbon County Kentucky. The redware pottery made on site was bartered and sold in the region, and the clay deposits were also used to make the bricks that constructed the 1820 Ingels family residence, still extant as of May 2026. Numerous materials characterization techniques including XRD, XRF, DTA/TGA, Spectroscopy, wet chemical analysis, and SEM were used to determine the characteristics of the local clay deposit and the identifying characteristics of the redware. The study also tested the wares to determine an approximate firing range, which was consistent with the requirements of low-to-mid fired earthenware. This study was done using archaeological materials from a previous archaeological investigation of the farm, but new material was added with the assistance the USDA Soil Survey Office in Kentucky, who drilled core samples for the project in Spring 2012.
This paper explores queer artist Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt (b. 1948) and his piece titled Allegory of the Stonewall Riot (Statue of Liberty Fighting for Drag Queen, Husband, and Home) (1969). I take a biographical approach to the paper, dissecting Lanigan-Schmidt’s childhood and young adult life living as a queer street kid in the 1960s. I follow him to New York City, where he continued creating his kitsch style art and started getting recognized for it. Outside of his artistic endeavors, Lanigan-Schmidt would catch himself hanging out at The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street. In the early hours of June 28, 1969, The Stonewall Inn was unexpectedly raided by the police. At a time when being queer was criminalized, the patrons of Stonewall had had enough and fought back against the police, sparking a riot that turned into a weeks-long protest. Lanigan-Schmidt was in attendance that night and joined the fight for gay liberation. It was this night that inspired his creation, Allegory of the Stonewall Riot (Statue of Liberty Fighting for Drag Queen, Husband, and Home). By analyzing the contextual importance of The Stonewall Inn and the riots that ensued, I show how Allegory of the Stonewall Riot reflects queer life in the 1960s. In the art historical canon, queer art is largely underrepresented. However, in this paper I show how Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt and Allegory of the Stonewall Riot deserve a place in the art historical canon
This project will explore the artist Leonora Carrington’s Self-portrait (Inn of the Dawn Horse, ca. 1937-38) and its relationship to and rejection of the male-centric, sexist ideology of psychoanalysis that governed the Surrealist movement. As outlined in Andre Breton's First Manifesto of Surrealism (1924), Freudian psychoanalysis had a great influence on Breton, the movement's founder (1896-1966). He believed in Freud's tenets and theories regarding dreams and the unconscious as a liberating and radical force that could tear down society’s systems of oppression. Yet there is a willful ignorance in Breton’s philosophy on the deep-rooted misogyny of Freud’s psychology and how the institution of psychoanalysis ignores the realities of female development and existence within inherently sexist societal structures of that period. However, Leonora Carrington rejected psychoanalytic theory as it pertained to her art. She refused to be categorized within sexist ideologies and asserted herself as a creative artist with her own interpretations of her work, positing her own ideologies in the process. She demonstrated her identity through her work and found liberation by developing her own feminist consciousness. Through researching Carrington's work, I want to expand on her ability to challenge the sexist paradigms of Surrealism and to reaffirm how her rejection demonstrates that female nonconformity is not only revolutionary but also necessary for female artistic freedom today. Other scholars have delved into this driving aspect of Carrington’s work but I will be utilizing Helene Cixous’ concept of “ecritutre feminine” in order to demonstrate how Carrington developed a “pictorial language” of her own within her work Self-Portrait (Inn of the Dawn Horse). I will use Cixous’ seminal work, "The Laugh of the Medusa," to expand on this idea and how Carrington developed that language, constituted of her own personal symbols, which is on full display in her self-portrait.
