Launched in 2023, the Emerging Technologies Initiative at Johns Hopkins SAIS is dedicated to exploring the transformative realms of technology and their profound implications on global affairs.
Our Mission
Our mission is to drive innovation and understanding at the intersection of emerging technologies, policy-making, and international relations. Building on the heritage of Johns Hopkins University as a beacon of cutting-edge research and pioneering thought, the Emerging Technologies Initiative strives to fuse expertise from a spectrum of fields, including social sciences, engineering, and policy studies and leverage the knowledge housed across Johns Hopkins University institutions and programs. Embracing the ethos of interdisciplinary collaboration, our initiative is dedicated to fostering innovation, policy-making, and training in the domain of emerging technologies.
Olga Belogolova
Director
Olga Belogolova is the Director of the Emerging Technologies Initiative at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). As a professor at the Alperovitch Institute at SAIS, she teaches about trust and safety policy and influence in the digital age. She previously taught at Georgetown University.
During her tenure at Facebook/Meta, Olga led policy for countering influence operations, coordinating the company's IO disruptions effort, and leading the execution and development of policies on coordinated inauthentic behavior, state media capture, and hack-and-leaks within the Trust and Safety team. Prior to that, she was a threat intelligence analyst at Facebook, identifying, tracking, and disrupting coordinated IO campaigns, leading work on Russia and Eastern Europe and in particular, the Internet Research Agency investigations between 2017 and 2019.
Olga previously worked as a journalist and her work has appeared in The Atlantic, National Journal, Inside Defense, and The Globe and Mail, among others. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Journalism and European Studies from Boston University. She is a fellow with the Truman National Security Project, serves on the review board for CYBERWARCON, the Trust & Safety Advisory Group of the Institute for Security and Technology, and is on the board of directors for the Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas (DDIA).
2024-2025
Fellows
Andrew Bailey
Andrew is a Master of Arts in International Relations candidate at SAIS, specializing in the integration of emerging technologies and their impact on the commercial and defense sectors. A former Signals Intelligence Officer in the United States Army, Andrew directed space-based collection efforts and coordinated intelligence operations across multiple agencies. As an Emerging Tech Fellow, he is focused on advancing his expertise in disruptive technologies and their global applications, with current research exploring the social media landscape and striving to bridge the gap between policy, regulation and product development.
Max Edelstein
Max is a second-year Master of Arts in International Relations candidate at SAIS, specializing in the intersection of technology, national security, and economics. A summa cum laude graduate of Colgate University, Max has conducted research on AI governance and El Salvador's adoption of Bitcoin as a national currency. At SAIS, he is a Reader’s Digest Fellow, a staff writer for the SAIS Observer covering technology and innovation, and a graduate research assistant for the Nexus Award-funded AI for HOPE project, which focuses on addressing health inequities through artificial intelligence.
Nadezhda Ivanova
Nadya is a Master of Arts in International Relations candidate at SAIS, focusing on the intersection of security, emerging technologies, and geopolitical risk. Previously, she conducted research on Russian cyber and disinformation operations in Europe at the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD). While at SAIS Europe, Nadya worked as a teaching assistant for Professor Veronica Anghel’s course on risk in international politics and economics. She was also a research assistant for the Bologna Institute for Policy Research (BIPR), where she managed the publication of the Global Risk Series.
Stavros Piperidis
Stavros is a Master of Arts in International Relations candidate at SAIS, focusing on transatlantic relations and emerging technologies. At SAIS, he is a Public Service Fellow, a Fulbright Fellow in Greece, an Onassis Foundation Scholar, and an A.G. Leventis Foundation Scholar. Having worked for the Permanent Representation of Greece to NATO during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps—Greece, and the Hellenic Army, Stavros strives to address conventional, hybrid, and emerging security threats in the Euro-Atlantic space.
2023-2024
Fellows
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Alexa Wehsener
Alexa is a Master of Strategy, Cybersecurity, and Intelligence candidate at SAIS, focusing on broadening her understanding of the security environment through historic and regional lenses. Alexa previously led defense research and strategy across lines of effort related to the risks and opportunities ML presents in operational environments, nuclear weapons systems, crisis communication, strategic stability, human cognitive security, democratic institution resiliency, and techno-industrial competition.
Cole Trautman
Cole is a Master of Strategy, Cybersecurity, and Intelligence candidate at SAIS, where he focuses on technology and cybersecurity. He previously wrote cyber threat and global risk briefs for a consulting company and has participated in multiple student research projects for client organizations.
Mariami Tkeshelashvili
Mariami is a Senior Associate for Artificial Intelligence Security Policy at the Institute for Security and Technology (IST), leading the AI Foundation Model Access Initiative and working on AI/Cyber and geopolitics of technology projects. She is also a Fellow at Johns Hopkins University Emerging Technologies Initiative. She previously worked on transatlantic tech policy at CEPA and managed USAID-funded projects at the National Democratic Institute.
Jaehyoung Ju
Jaehyoung is a MAIR candidate at SAIS, focusing on trilateral security policy coordination between Korea, the United States, and Japan. His previous work at Asia Society Policy Institute and the Korea Society explored areas of national industrial competition and economic security in the Indo-Pacific. Jaehyoung is a SAIS Public Service Fellow and a 2024 Munich Security Conference Junior Ambassador.