Atakan Yılmaz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Bahçeşehir University. He received his Ph.D. in International Relations from Galatasaray University in 2024, following a B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from Istanbul University (2017) and an M.A. from Kadir Has University. His master’s thesis, The Evolution of Deterrence Theory for a New Dimension: The Challenges of Cyber Deterrence Strategies in the International System, examined the theoretical and practical challenges of cyber deterrence. His doctoral dissertation, Cyber Tools as Foreign Policy Instruments in Trilateral Relations: Analyzing Cyber-Attacks Targeting the United Kingdom (2024), analysed the use of cyber operations as instruments of foreign policy. As part of his doctoral research, he developed an AI-driven early warning system for politically motivated DDoS cyber-attacks, supported by a TÜBİTAK 2214-A International Research Fellowship, which funded a six-month research stay at the University of South Wales (Cardiff, United Kingdom). Dr. Yılmaz’s research focuses on international security and governance, with particular emphasis on cybersecurity, foreign policy analysis, and digital and emerging technologies in global politics. Methodologically, his work draws on computational social science, employing natural language processing and machine-learning–based text analysis to examine large-scale policy documents, security discourses, and the political implications of technological change.