Speaker Bio
Dr Melanie Garson is cyber and tech geopolitics policy specialist and public speaker who connects the dots between new and emerging tech and its potential impact on security, foreign policy, diplomacy and the world order.
She is an Associate Professor in International Security in the Department of Political Science at University College London where she teaches her flagship course “From Cyberwarfare to Robots: The Future of Conflict in the Digital Age” that examines the nexus of disruptive tech and building defence and resilience. She also teaches courses on international negotiation and tech diplomacy, as well as problem-solving for policymaking at HM Treasury.
Melanie has also worked for four years at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change advising governments and providing thought leadership on cyber resilience policy, the geopolitics of the internet, astropolitics and space, AI, and compute, the rise of tech companies as geopolitical actors, data governance as well as the intersection of disruptive tech, foreign policy, defence and diplomacy.
Melanie presents regularly at international conferences globally on the implications of cyber, AI and emerging technologies on geopolitics and foreign policy, as well as provides commentary in podcasts, webinars and at major media outlets including Bloomberg, BBC, Sky, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, France 24, and DeutscheWelle.
Melanie is an accredited mediator and prior to joining UCL worked as a solicitor in the International Disputes department of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, covering Public International Law, International Arbitration, and International Corporate Investigations, as well as teaching mediation and negotiation techniques.