FP Virtual Dialogue: Enhancing Cyber Nuclear Security

Dr. Alina Polyakova is President and CEO of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) as well as an adjunct professor of European studies at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Dr. Polyakova is a recognized expert on transatlantic relations, European security, Russian foreign policy, digital authoritarianism, and populism in democracies. She is the author of the book, The Dark Side of European Integration, which examines the rise of far-right political movements in Europe, as well as dozens of major reports and articles in outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, and The Atlantic, and others. She is a frequent commentator in major media outlets, such as Fox News, CNN, and BBC. Prior to joining CEPA, Dr. Polyakova was the Founding Director for Global Democracy and Emerging Technology at the Brookings Institution and prior to that served as Director of Research for Europe and Eurasia at the Atlantic Council. She has held numerous prestigious fellowships, including at the National Science Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the Fulbright Foundation, among others. She also serves on the board of the Free Russia Foundation and the Institute of Modern Russia. Dr. Polyakova holds a Ph.D. and MA in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BA in Economics and Sociology from Emory University.

Andrew Moore is Chief of Staff to Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google and co-founder of Schmidt Futures. He was previously Special Counselor at Schmidt Futures where he worked with CNN journalist Fareed Zakaria on international programming and led the team orchestrating the International Strategy Forum. Prior to Schmidt Futures, Andrew spent a decade as a political officer in the U.S. Foreign Service, representing the United States abroad on postings in Islamabad, Melbourne, and Jerusalem. Among other roles, Andrew served as a Special Assistant in the office of Secretary of State John Kerry, facilitating his global engagements, including negotiations on climate change and Iran’s nuclear program. Outside of government, Andrew worked as a fellow at Google X, an attorney at Debevoise & Plimpton, and a consultant at McKinsey & Company. He serves on the board of the Latin American Leadership Foundation and FP21, a non-profit dedicated to advancing evidence-based foreign policy. Andrew earned an A.B. from Harvard College, a J.D. from Stanford Law School, and an M.B.A. from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

Brandon Wales is the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) first Executive Director, serving as the senior career executive helping oversee execution of CISA operations. He is responsible for leading long-term strategy development, managing CISA-wide policy initiatives and ensuring effective operational collaboration across the Agency. In February 2022, Wales was appointed as the lead for the Federal Government’s domestic preparedness and response related to the Russian-Ukraine crisis. In this capacity, Wales was responsible for establishing and leading an interagency Unified Coordination Group (UCG) to ensure unity of effort, building U.S. government-wide strategic objectives, identifying and resolving gaps in operations and interagency coordination, and coordinating with federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial officials, as well as representatives of private sector and non-governmental entities. From November 2020 through July 2021, Wales was the Acting Director of CISA. In this capacity, he led CISA’s efforts to defend civilian networks, manage systemic risk to national critical functions, and work across both the public and private sectors to raise the security baseline of the Nation’s cyber and physical infrastructure. During his tenure as the acting Director, he led the agency’s response to the SolarWinds Orion Supply Chain Attacks, Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities, the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, Pulse Connect Secure vulnerabilities, and the Kaseya VSA supply chain ransomware attack, among many others, while completing the stand-up and reorganization of the Agency following the passage of the CISA Act of 2018, which established CISA as an independent agency. From August 2017 to December 2019, Wales directly supported the Secretary of Homeland Security beginning as the Senior Counselor to the Secretary for Cyber and Resilience, Wales was responsible for advising on cybersecurity, emergency management, incident response and building a more resilient nation. Following that assignment, he served as the Deputy Chief of Staff (Acting), developing and advancing the Department’s strategic priorities. In June 2019, Wales assumed the role of Chief of Staff (Acting), assisting the Secretary in overseeing the Department, ensuring close coordination across its operational components and managing interagency relationships. Wales’ experience within and understanding of the Department is both broad and deep. He served as the Director of the DHS Office of Cyber and Infrastructure Analysis (OCIA), which provided integrated analysis of cyber and physical risks to the Nation’s critical infrastructure. From 2009 to 2014, Wales was the Director of the Homeland Infrastructure Threat and Risk Analysis Center (HITRAC), an all-hazards analytic resource for public and private sector partners covering the full array of risks facing the infrastructure community. In this capacity, he oversaw the Department’s advanced modeling, simulation, and analysis program, leading a team of researchers conducting ground-breaking and forward-leaning analysis of some of the Nation’s most complex infrastructure challenges. Wales has been called upon to support a variety of Department-wide initiatives. When the Department began working on the first Quadrennial Homeland Security Review in 2009, Wales was asked to lead the review of the counterterrorism and cyber security mission areas. Following the 2013 release of Executive Order 13636, Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, Wales led the effort to identify critical infrastructure at potential catastrophic risk from cybersecurity incidents. Wales’ contributions have been recognized with an Exceptional Performance Award from the Director of National Intelligence, a DHS Secretary’s Award for Excellence, and two DHS Distinguished Service Medals, the Department’s highest civilian award. Before joining the Department in 2005, Wales was the national security aide to United States Senator Jon Kyl and a Senior Associate at a Washington-based foreign policy and national security think-tank. Wales received his Bachelor’s degree from George Washington University and his Master’s degree from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Caroline Baylon is a Research Affiliate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risks at the University of Cambridge and also runs the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Future Generations in the UK Parliament, whose mission is to raise awareness of global catastrophic risks that could stem from areas such as cybersecurity, AI, or nuclear weapons and the need for greater long-term thinking in order to help mitigate these risks. As part of her work on the APPG, she has been running a joint project with the Ukrainian Parliament’s Inter-factional Union on Strategic Foresight for Ukraine in order to carry out a scenario planning exercise examining different possible future trajectories for Ukraine. Developed over the course of seven months, the project has brought together Ukrainian Parliamentarians, UK Parliamentarians, and subject matter experts from a wide range of areas to develop a set of scenarios for the rebuilding and reconstruction of the country. The scenario development process included taking nuclear risks into account. Previously, Caroline was the lead on cybersecurity at Chatham House (The Royal Institute of International Affairs), where she spent two years examining cyber threats to nuclear facilities, including conducting interviews in Ukraine as part of the project. She is the lead author of Cyber Security at Civil Nuclear Facilities: Understanding the Risks. Caroline also serves as an expert and was also a rapporteur of the EU Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA)’s working groups on AI Cybersecurity and on Foresight for Emerging Cybersecurity Challenges. Previously, she served as Security Research and Innovation Lead at financial services company AXA, where she headed a research unit focused on identifying and assessing current and emerging threats involving cybersecurity and AI. She has also served as a cybersecurity expert for the French government (Expertise France), as a researcher on cybersecurity for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office, and as a cybersecurity consultant for various companies in the private sector. Caroline holds a Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and a Master’s degree from the University of Oxford in Social Science of the Internet, where she focused on cybersecurity topics.

Page Stoutland is a consultant to the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). He previously served as the NTI Vice President for Scientific and Technical Affairs, responsible for NTI’s scientific and technically related projects designed to strengthen nuclear security and reduce risks around the world. Current themes include understanding the risks and benefits of emerging technologies for nuclear security, working to strengthen cybersecurity for nuclear weapons systems and at nuclear facilities, and the use of publicly available information for detection of illicit nuclear activities. Prior to joining NTI, Stoutland spent the previous ten years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) where he held a number of senior positions, including the director of strategy, program director for domestic security and division leader for radiological & nuclear countermeasures. During this time, he was instrumental in developing and leading LLNL’s programs in support of the post-9/11 homeland security effort. Prior to joining LLNL, he held positions within the U.S. Department of Energy where he served as the director of the Chemical and Biological National Security Program and at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Stoutland holds a bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota and a doctorate in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. After completing his doctorate, he spent two years at Stanford University as a National Institutes of Health post-doctoral fellow. In 2018, Stoutland was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Ravi Agrawal is the editor in chief of Foreign Policy, the host of FP Live, and a regular world affairs analyst on TV and radio. Before joining FP in 2018, Agrawal worked at CNN for more than a decade in full-time roles spanning three continents, including as the network’s New Delhi bureau chief and correspondent. He has shared a Peabody Award and three Emmy nominations for his work as a TV producer, and his writing for FP was part of a series nominated for a 2020 National Magazine Award for columns and commentary. Agrawal is the author of India Connected: How the Smartphone Is Transforming the World’s Largest Democracy. He is a graduate of Harvard University.