Lena Rottinger, MA

Lena Rottinger is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at Heidelberg University and a Research Associate at the European Repository on Cyber Incidents (EuRepoC), working at the intersection of cybersecurity, diplomacy, and conflict studies. In her doctoral project, she develops a new conceptual framework for assessing state responses to malicious cyber activity — from resilience-building measures to punitive action — situating these dynamics within broader debates on deterrence, international norms, and institutionalism.

At EuRepoC, she co-developed the "Response Pipeline," a semi-automated coding procedure that scaled up the collection of data on state response patterns to cyber activity, and regularly engages with stakeholders such as NATO and the German Federal Foreign Office. She authors the quarterly Cyber Conflict Briefing for Tagesspiegel Background Cybersecurity and has contributed to policy-relevant publications.

She studied Political Science, Economics, and Transcultural Studies at Heidelberg University and the University of Bologna, with a focus on International Relations. Her research interests include cyber deterrence, the emergence of international (cyber) norms, institutional coordination in cyber diplomacy, and empirical methods for analyzing cyber conflict.