A generous gift from Robert E Wilhelm supports an annual fellowship at MIT's Center for International Studies for an individual who has held senior positions in public life. The Wilhelm Fellowship is open, for example, to heads of non-profit agencies, senior officials at the State Department or other government agencies, including ambassadors, or senior officials from the UN or other multilateral agencies. Wilhelm Fellows come with an intellectual project to be accomplished at CIS and collaborate with MIT faculty members in research and/or teaching. They are provided with an office, administrative support and a stipend. To inquire about applying, contact CIS executive director John Tirman (tirman@mit.edu / 617-253-9861).

The Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship is organized by the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) and the friends and family of Elizabeth Neuffer, a Boston Globe reporter who was killed in May 2003 while covering the war in Iraq. The fellowship supports women journalists who report on human rights and social justice issues, and combines research opportunities at CIS and other Boston-area universities with opportunities at the New York Times and the Boston Globe.

Neuffer Fellows design a program that combines academic research with practical experience covering human rights. They also play a key role in the Elizabeth Neuffer Forum on Human Rights and Journalism, a program held each May. For more information or to apply, contact the IWMF at neuffer@iwmf.org.

I am a postdoctoral fellow in Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft appointed jointly at the Harvard Kennedy School’s International Security Program and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Security Studies Program.

My current research explores the ways that great powers shape security and achieve influence in the developing world. My book project, which draws on my dissertation, examines the effectiveness of security assistance as a great power tool to shape military norms and behavior in smaller states.

In other projects, I examine different aspects of military and economic statecraft, civil-military relations, and asymmetric bargaining between both state and non-state actors. My research uses mixed methods to address these topics, including survey experiments, in-depth interviews, statistical analysis, and archival research.

My work is published or forthcoming in Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of the Middle East and Africa, and Political Science Quarterly, and policy outlets including The National Interest, Lawfare, Defense One, and PRISM. My research has been supported by the Eisenhower Institute and the Smith Richardson Foundation. Previously, I was a predoctoral fellow in the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies at George Washington University.

I received my PhD in Political Science from Columbia University in 2020. I also hold an MA in Security Studies from Georgetown University, and a BA in International Community Development from Oral Roberts University. Before graduate school, I worked for the US Department of Defense as a program analyst.

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I am a Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, with additional postdoctoral affiliations at the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy Program and at the An Wang China and the World Program at Harvard’s Fairbank Center. I completed a PhD in Security Studies at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, where I was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. My research has also been supported by the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Tobin Project, and the Bradley Foundation.

I am interested in how states use non-military tools, including economic and informational tools, in pursuit of geopolitical influence. My research interests cover the political economy of security, China's foreign policy, and Asia-Pacific security issues. My current book project examines China’s strategies of economic statecraft and patterns of effectiveness across different target countries. In another series of ongoing projects, I analyze how authoritarian states such as China are using informational tools to alter public discourse and shape political processes in democracies — what I call “informational statecraft.” Other work has looked at the role of subnational actors in China’s foreign policy and at asymmetrical alliance relationships, with a focus on East and Southeast Asia.

Previously, I was a Junior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. I earned my BA in Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, with a minor in Translation and Intercultural Communication.

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Joel F Brenner specializes in cyber and physical security, data protection and privacy, intelligence law, the administration of classified information and facilities, and the regulation of sensitive cross-­‐border transactions. He has represented companies and individuals in a wide variety of transactions and proceedings including sensitive foreign acquisitions involving the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), the law governing network operations, the liability of foreign governments, export controls, and internal corporate and government investigations. He has years of experience inside and outside government involving national and homeland security.

Mr Brenner was Senior Counsel at the National Security Agency, advising Agency leadership on the public-­‐private effort to create better security for the Internet. From 2006 until mid-­‐2009, he was the head of US counterintelligence under the Director of National Intelligence and was responsible for integrating the counterintelligence activities of the 17 departments and agencies with intelligence authorities, including the FBI and CIA and elements of the Departments of Defense, Energy, and Homeland Security. From 2002–2006, Mr Brenner was NSA's Inspector General, responsible for that agency's top-­‐secret internal audits and investigations. He has also served as a prosecutor in the Justice Department's Antitrust Division and has extensive trial and arbitration experience in private practice.

Mr. Brenner holds a JD from the Harvard Law School, a PhD from the London School of Economics, and a BA from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

He is a member of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Law & National Security. He has written about intelligence oversight and Presidential authority to suspend or prohibit foreign takeovers of U.S. firms, and is often quoted in the national media on data security, privacy, and intelligence issues. Mr Brenner was awarded the Intelligence Community Achievement Medal in July 2009.

Mr Brenner is the author of AMERICA THE VULNERABLE: INSIDE THE NEW THREAT MATRIX OF DIGITAL ESPIONAGE, CRIME AND WARFARE (Penguin Press, 2011).

Mr Brenner is admitted to practice in Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland, and New York.

Dr R David Edelman comes to MIT having distinguished himself as one of the US government’s foremost voices on how technology is changing our economy, national security, and daily lives. An expert on pressing technology challenges facing national security and the global economy, his insights have helped shape national and international policy at the highest levels.

In his most recent role as Special Assistant to the President for Economic and Technology Policy at the National Economic Council (NEC), he led the White House team focusing on the digital economy — including broadband, telecommunications, spectrum, and technology trade — as well as consumer cybersecurity, domestic and international data privacy, high-tech patent and copyright issues, and antitrust/competition.

In his time at the White House he led engagement with hundreds of technology companies around the world; advised the President on a range of emerging technologies such as big data, drones, and autonomous vehicles; and designed and managed over $15 billion of signature programs focused on technology, education, and economic opportunity.

He was awarded the State Department’s Superior Honor Award for his work on intelligence matters, and was twice the recipient of the Meritorious Honor Award for his United Nations negotiations and development of the nation’s cyber diplomacy strategy. He was previously named one of Forbes’ “30 Under 30” leaders in Law & Policy, and later chosen as a “30 Under 30 All-Star Alumni” — one of only three in the magazine’s history — for his ongoing contributions to national policy.

Edelman holds a bachelor’s degree in History (with honors) from Yale and Master’s and Doctoral degrees from Oxford in International Relations. His dissertation, “Cyberattacks in International Relations,” examined which forces might restrain state use of offensive cyber capabilities.