Lorenz Sommer, M.A.

Short Bio

Lorenz Sommer is a doctoral researcher at the Chair of International Relations and the Chair of Global Governance and Public Policy. He has received his Masters degree in Political Science at the University of Bamberg, with a focus on International Relations and on Computational Social Science methods. His doctoral research covers state security competition in cyberspace, applying classical concepts of security studies literature on this new domain. In his PhD and project work, he has applied quantitative methods, usually for mapping purposes, and qualitative methods in equal measure. He has been teaching undergraduate seminars in the winter semesters 2024/25 and 2025/26.

Research Interests

State conflict in cyberspace: Cyberspace is a new domain of security competition between states, greatly differing in scope conditions compared to known conventional domains and the nuclear realm. Contrary to them, in cyberspace there is constant activity between states, below the threshold of war but with cumulative effects over time, and not limited to state actors. How do these scope conditions affect the security competition between states? To what extend are concepts that hold true in conventional domains applicable to cyberspace? Is cyberspace a domain in the first place, or should we conceptualize it as something else, given its pervasive character? My doctoral project explores these questions using quantitative and qualitative methods.

Publications

• [Under Review] Varieties of Defense Industrial Innovation? Explaining cross-sectoral variations in military innovation (2024)
• [Under Review] The Return of the "Positive State"? Capacity-Building for the Protection of Critical National Infrastructures Across Europe (2025)