John Allison Receives 2022 Erika Fairchild Outstanding Paper Award

John E. Allison is the 2022 recipient of the Erika Fairchild Award for Outstanding Paper. Allison graduated magna cum laude in May with a B.S. in political science and a minor in computer programming. 

“It’s very flattering to receive this award; I wasn’t expecting it. It’s a very nice way to end my undergraduate career and I am glad that all the hard work put into this paper was so well received.”

Allison’s paper, “U.S.-Russia Cyber-Conflict: Act of War or Time For Restraint?” posits that it is time for the United States to demonstrate restraint and focus efforts on hardening cyber defenses across the board rather than engaging in an arms race that ends in mutually assured destruction. He explored the background and lead-up to the current state of Russia and its cyberwarfare capabilities, analyzed the literature concerning the state-of-the-art cybersecurity research, and provided recommendations on how to contain the Russian threat.

Department Chair, Professor Michael Struett, announced Allison’s award at the spring 2022 commencement ceremony. He noted that “Allison takes on a complex and crucially important topic. How should the United States think about its cyber security and defend our crucial networked infrastructure in a world where hostile actors may be ready to attack our vulnerabilities?  Allison cautions that diplomacy and lowering the pressure for escalation could be a better solution than developing our own offensive cyber weapons.”

“When I started the research, Russia had not yet begun its current military invasion of Ukraine,” Allison said, “and my research was manageable. However there was soon a flood of information and it was a challenge to filter through it all, discard the noise, and stay organized.” He found older students and his professor, Richard Mahoney, to be very good resources in terms of advice and support as he navigated a long research paper. He also used software tools like Zotero to organize information. 

“I was very engaged in this particular topic,” Allison added. “It combined both my major and my minor and was very timely. I hope to eventually build a career in cybersecurity and policy and this intensive research paper was a great foundational experience. I wish I had gotten deeply involved with a research topic like this earlier in my undergraduate education rather than at the end – that part is bittersweet.”

He advises undergraduates considering research courses or projects to take them on as early as possible, to pick topics they are really invested in, and to definitely ask for guidance and support from professors. “That’s NC State’s greatest strength,” Allison said, “we have so many resources at our disposal.” 

“Professor Mahoney was very helpful,” Allison said. He’s brilliant and has done so much; I really learned a lot from him and he has a story or anecdote for every topic you can imagine. He also expects a lot from his students, but I think that’s because he knows we are capable of it.”

When asked what he’ll miss most about NC State, Allison did not hesitate: “Being in an engaged academic community and learning all the time. I enjoyed my political science courses because they always help me make sense of the world and what is happening.”

Allison will begin work at Cisco after graduation and hopes to eventually complete a Ph.D. program in computer science that focuses on cybersecurity and national security policy. 

The Erika Fairchild Award is given to the graduating senior who has written the best paper during the academic year. Fairchild was a professor of political science at North Carolina State University, where she was also the Associate Dean of the College of Humanities.