John Githongo will be joining CIS as a Wilhelm fellow in fall 2024. Githongo hails from Kenya, where he was a journalist and became a leading light in the Transparency movement. Throughout his career, he has held a variety of government, non-government and academic appointments, and was recognized by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the world’s 100 top global thinkers.

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.

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.

The Center is thrilled to welcome three of four Global MIT At-Risk Fellows (GMAF) on campus. The newly launched GMAF program is designed to provide sanctuary to scholars around the globe whose lives and academic freedom are under threat. The pilot program is offered through the MIT-Ukraine Program and is focused on Ukrainian researchers and faculty. Our spring 2024 Ukrainian scholars include: Liudmyla Huliaieva, an economist, whose research and activism focuses on the economic adaptation and survival of Ukrainian women migrants in time of war; Dmytro Chumachenko, a multidisciplinary scientist working and the intersection of computer science and public health; and Kateryna Lopatiuk, an urban researcher, who aims to foster an ecosystem conducive to transitioning Ukraine to a circular economy in a range of fields, especially in the context of the post-war reconstruction.

The MIT-Empowering the Teachers (MIT-ETT) program provides an intense, semester long teaching-focused engagement for selected cohorts of faculty members (ETT Fellows) from African universities. By introducing the ETT Fellows to cutting edge student-focused teaching methodologies the ETT strives to foster innovation in science and engineering education in tertiary academic institutions in Africa. Our vision for the students of our Fellows is to graduate ready for the demands of today’s job market, equipped with hands-on problem solving and critical thinking capabilities. NNPC Ltd. & TotalEnergies EP Nigeria are the corporate partners and sponsors of the program.

Polina Beliakova is a scholar of international security focusing on civil-military relations and the use of force, with regional expertise in Russia and Ukraine. She received her Ph.D. in International Relations from the Fletcher School, Tufts University, and held a postdoctoral appointment at Dartmouth College's Dickey Center for International Understanding. Being a native Ukrainian and Russian speaker, she collects data through elite interviews, fieldwork, archival research, and systematic review of local media sources, using quantitative and qualitative approaches for data analysis.

Her book project, Know Thy Military: How Governmental Policies Weaken Civilian Control, highlights the understudied effects of governmental decisions about the use of force on the erosion of civilian control in the states with historically coup-averse militaries. The empirical chapters build on evidence from Russia, Ukraine, Israel, and the United Kingdom.

Polina's work has been published by Comparative Political Studies, Texas National Security Review, Perspectives on Terrorism, Foreign Affairs, War on the Rocks, POLITICO, and the Washington Post. Her expertise on the Russian defense sector, Ukraine's security sector governance, and Russia's post-Cold War use of force informed projects by the U.K. Government's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Transparency International, and the World Peace Foundation, among others.

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.