• Deepfakes’ Deepening Impact on the Law, Trusted Future, March 17, 2022

  • The increased use of rudimentary deception techniques in visual imagery and the growth of hyperreal synthetic media raises several significant and developing legal issues. Whether related to their positive uses for entertainment or accessibility, or their misuse for abuse and deception, image alteration and deception pose evolving questions for attorneys, legislators, and businesses.

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• Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Raises Cybersecurity Dangers for U.S. Businesses, WilmerHale Privacy and Cybersecurity Law Blog, Feb 25, 2022

  • Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine is raising cybersecurity risks for American businesses. Corporate America must take immediate additional precautions to protect their networks in light of what is quickly becoming a major war in Europe. (co-author)

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• The Rise of Counter-Disinformation Litigation and What It Means for Business, Corporate Counsel, Feb. 8, 2022

  • The recent flood of false narratives has led to a proliferation of "counter-disinformation litigation," civil litigation brought by victims of falsity against its propagators. While many of these suits are still in the early stages, plaintiffs have seen notable (and surprising) successes thus far, suggesting the emergence of a specialized, potent tool to combat phony and harmful narratives. Both victims of false narratives and potential defendants should pay heed to these novel developments. (co-author)​

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• Chapter 4.A "Deepfakes," in The American College of Trial Lawyers Handbook of Electronic Evidence (Brent Gurney et al. eds., January 21, 2022) 

  • In recent years, we have seen the emergence of a new kind of manipulated media called “deepfakes.” They pose novel questions for the authentication of courtroom evidence.  I contributed to an analysis of the unique challenges they pose in this handbook published by Bloomberg BNA.

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• Taiwan’s Clear-eyed Moves to Counter Disinformation and Deepfakes, The SCIF, January 5, 2022

  • Taiwan leads the world in dealing with disinformation and deepfakes, and for good reason. China launches information operations against it constantly. The United States could learn from Taipei's experience.

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• Reflections on Satire, Fair Use, and Free Speech, in Just Joking! Deepfakes, Satire and the Politics of Synthetic Media, December 14, 2021 

  • Deepfakes pose interesting legal questions when it comes to satire, intellectual-property protections, and free-speech precepts. ​

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• Disinformation Dangers: Fake Narratives and Deepfakes Pose Rising Risks to Business, Corporate Counsel, December 13, 2021

  • The growing ease with which believable deepfake media can be created will accelerate a range of business dangers, particularly those related to reputational risk, market manipulation, and social engineering fraud.​

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• Environmental Deconfliction 2021: The National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2021, 51 Environmental Law Reporter 11025 (2021) 

  • As in prior years, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 contains a variety of provisions setting US Department of Defense priorities for energy, environmental, and natural resource issues. These include measures that represent some degree of consensus on these often-politicized topics. In this Article, the fourth in an annual series, the authors canvass how the Act addresses a host of issues in the areas of climate resiliency, energy management, hazardous substances, and environmental and natural resource management, and its implications for practitioners in these areas. (co-author)​

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• To Help Counter China, Bolster Bhutan, The SCIF, October 21, 2021

  • The United States should stand squarely with Bhutan in the face of Chinese territorial encroachment. By doing so, Washington can help create negative incentives for China to seize territory through salami-slicing tactics in Bhutan and elsewhere. The United States will buttress a small, democratic state against subversion. And it will push back against Beijing’s revanchism, which now stretches from the highest mountains to the sea.​

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• Ransomware Attacks are About to Get Worse. But There are Ways to Stop Them, CNN Business, September 13, 2021

  • Ransomware extortions have become a self-sustaining ecosystem of criminality. It is a thriving business because most victims are willing to pay relatively modest ransoms, which then fund further attacks. Things are likely to get worse, but there are steps businesses and government can take to mitigate these dangers.​

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• Hawaii Outlaws Some Deepfakes, The SCIF, July 13, 2021

  • On June 23, 2021, Hawaii joined a growing number of states in barring certain deepfakes. Hawaii targets non-consensual deepfake pornography, when a non-consenting person’s face is placed on a nude body to create a believable pornographic image.​

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• Congress Should be “Guardians” of the Intelligence Community, The SCIF, May 13, 2021

  • Congress should take the opportunities presented by a new administration, new agency heads, and new Intelligence Committee members to embrace a reinvigorated form of intelligence oversight — they should be “guardians” of the Intelligence Community. In this view, Congress provides accountable oversight of the intelligence enterprise, supports its people, and — critically in this era of apocalyptic political warfare — protects it from baseless attacks of partisan malfeasance.​

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• Five Practical Steps to Counter the Atomic Deception of Deepfakes, The SCIF, April 1, 2021

  • Deepfakes will likely occasion an epochal shift in the information environment, similar to the paradigmatic shift in warfare brought about by atomic weapons. The piece offers five practical next steps the U.S. Government can take to address the worst uses of this new technology.​

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• FBI Warns Companies of “Almost Certain” Threats from Deepfakes,  4 Journal of Robotics Artificial Intelligence & Law 267 (July-August 2021) 

  • On March 10, 2021, the FBI issued a Private Industry Notification advising companies that “[m]alicious actors almost certainly will leverage synthetic content for cyber and foreign influence operations in the next 12-18 months.” The FBI’s stark warning—a first related to what is commonly referred to as deepfakes (synthetic media that is either wholly created or altered by artificial intelligence or machine learning)—comes amid rising awareness of the prevalence and potential dangers of disinformation in general and highly realistic phony media, in particular. The FBI warns that synthetic content may be used to conduct Business Identity Compromise, where deepfake-tools will be employed to create “synthetic corporate personas” or imitate existing employees and will likely cause “very significant financial and reputational impacts to victim businesses and organizations.” Companies may want to revisit their security practices in the face of these intensifying challenges to information security. (co-author)​ (Originally published as a WilmerHale Client Alert on March 16, 2021 [PDF])

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• United States, in Getting the Deal Through: Cybersecurity 2021, 112-121 (Benjamin Powell & Jason Chipman eds., 7th ed. 2021)

  • "Getting the Deal Through" provides an international analysis in key areas of law, practice and regulation for corporate counsel, cross-border practitioners, and company directors and officers. This chapter explains how United States generally addresses cybersecurity through sector-specific statutes, regulations and private industry requirements, and it addresses recent coronavirus-related developments. (co-author)

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• Biden Orders Reviews of Critical Supply Chains, WilmerHale Client Alert, February 25, 2021

  • On Wednesday, February 24, 2021, President Biden signed an Executive Order (Order) directing a series of reviews of global supply chains—the latest government effort to create more resilient and secure supply chains for critical materials and goods. The reviews will involve multiple departments within the Executive Branch and will implicate a broad range of policy-related concerns, including defense, intelligence, health, climate, the economy, geopolitics and human rights. While the Order does not single out any country in particular, it will likely focus on China, whose dominance of key supply chains is widely perceived as imperiling US economic and national security, as well as other nations “that are, or are likely to become, unfriendly or unstable.” (co-author)​

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• Funding Package Provides Opportunities for Clean Energy Industries, WilmerHale Client Alert, December 30, 2020

  • The omnibus appropriations and COVID fiscal stimulus package includes some of the most significant energy and climate legislation in years. These provisions present important public-private partnership opportunities, opening doors for energy and technology companies. (co-author)​

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• Congress's Deepening Interest in Deepfakes, The Hill, December 29, 2020

  • Congress is closing the year by taking significant yet unheralded early steps to legislate on deepfakes. In quick succession in December, Congress sent two bills to the president, the National Defense Authorization for FY 2021 and the IOGAN Act. They would require, respectively, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and the National Science Foundation to issue reports on and bolster research into deepfakes. These bills ask for recommendations that could lay the predicate for federal regulations of such media.​

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• New York’s Right to Publicity and Deepfakes Law Breaks New Ground, 38 The Computer & Internet Lawyer 1 (2021)

  • ​On November 30, 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a path-breaking law addressing synthetic or digitally manipulated media. The law establishes a postmortem right of publicity to protect performers’ likenesses—including digitally manipulated likenesses—from unauthorized commercial exploitation for 40 years after death. It also bans nonconsensual deepfake pornography. With this law, New York becomes the first state in the nation to explicitly extend a person’s right of publicity to computer-generated likenesses. This law has important implications to media and entertainment law and is part of growing legislative efforts around deepfakes. In sum, manipulated media is fast becoming a government-regulated field. (co-author) (Originally published as a WilmerHale Client Alert on December 17, 2020 [PDF])

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• Decoding Deepfakes, National Security Institute Backgrounder, December 16, 2020

  • This National Security Institute Backgrounder addresses what deepfakes are, how they're made, what dangers they pose, and the laws and norms that may mitigate those negative uses.​

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• What a Biden Administration Will Mean for National Security Reviews of Foreign Investments, Foreign Investment Watch, December 10, 2020

  • Regulatory scrutiny of foreign investment in the United States has been increasing for several years, and that trend is likely to continue in the incoming Biden Administration, which has already called for a reshoring of supply chains and voiced suspicion of Chinese technological theft. The expanded jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), proposed Congressional funding for increased operations and staffing, and new regulations portend increasing regulatory scrutiny of such transactions for national security threats well into the next administration. (co-author)​ (originally published as a WilmerHale Client Alert (PDF) on Dec. 10, 2020, republished by Foreign Investment Watch on December 20, 2020.)

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• Environmental Deconfliction 2020: The National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2020, 50 Environmental Law Reporter 10983 (2020)

  • As in prior years, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 contains a variety of provisions setting U.S. Department of Defense priorities for energy, environmental, and natural resource issues.  These include measures that represent some degree of consensus on these often-politicized topics.  In this Article, the third in an annual series, we canvass how the Act addresses a host of issues in the areas
    of climate resiliency, energy management, hazardous substances, and environmental and natural resource management, and its implications for practitioners in these areas​. (co-author)

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• Decoupling from China, Law 360, October 28-29, 2020

  • The COVID-19 pandemic and the serious supply chain vulnerabilities it exposed have led to a seismic shift in U.S. policy and regulation, from stepped-up measures to protect U.S. technology, intellectual property and data from theft or acquisition by China to a new national imperative to end U.S. dependence on China for strategically important materials, components and products. This three-part article provides a comprehensive overview of efforts to "decouple" the US and Chinese economies and how they impact private sector businesses, with particular attention to recent changes addressing U.S. supply chain concerns. (co-author) (originally published as a WilmerHale Client Alert (PDF) on Sept. 21, 2020.)

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• Celebrity Disinformation Victims Have Panoply of Remedies, Law 360, September 29, 2020

  • A recent incident involving the misappropriation of LeBron James' image online puts into sharp relief the many legal remedies anyone can use to vindicate their rights if their likenesses are misused. These tools may grow in importance as manipulated media and celebrity deepfake pornography menaces an ever increasing number of people.​ (co-author)

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• What Corporate America Can Do to Protect Itself From Conspiracy Theories, Real Clear World, July 22, 2020

  • Conspiratorial thinking is like water -- it seeps into perceptions about everything. It warps views on matters as far-flung as telecommunications infrastructure and pharmaceuticals. It is a lesson businesses of all stripes would do well to learn: In our interconnected era, where social trust in all institutions is at low ebb, businesses can become collateral damage to conspiracy theories. Off-the-wall, yet widely shared claims can harm corporate brands, the perceptions of products, and even hard assets.

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• Taking the Wide-Angle View of the Business and Legal Risks of Disinformation and Deepfakes, Protego Press, April 9, 2020

  • Protecting private entities and individuals from the risks of disinformation and deepfakes will take new thinking, preparation and diligence. We should consider threats, responses and appropriate measures in an appropriately broad context that sees the dangers and solutions in a broad lens.​

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• Through A Straw Darkly: Reflections on the NYU Conference “When Seeing Isn’t Believing: Deepfakes and the Law”, N.Y.U. Journal of Legislation & Public and Policy Quorum (2020), April 4, 2020

  • The spread of a global coronavirus contagion along with a concomitant “infodemic” of viral misinformation about the disease, its origins, and potential remedies, have made clear that disinformation can infect almost any facet of contemporary life. Human patterns of producing, sharing, and consuming information have entered a new era. And so too must our understanding of the dangers and opportunities presented by those changes. A recent conference at New York University contributed significantly to broadening the conversation about the dangers of disinformation and deepfakes.​

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• The Next Gray Zone Conflict: State-Based Disinformation Attacks on the Private Sector, Lawfare, March 24, 2020

  • As trade-wars proliferate, technological rivalries intensify and U.S. corporations take public positions on hot-button social issues, American businesses will increasingly find themselves in the cross hairs of nation-state sponsored disinformation operations. (co-author)​

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• Identifying the Legal and Business Risks of Disinformation and Deepfakes: What Every Business Needs to Know, 6 Pratt's Privacy and Cybersecurity Law Report 142 (2020) 

  • Disinformation and “deepfakes” pose growing threats to the private sector. Already, disinformation has been weaponized to harm brands, move markets, and undermine trust in companies and industries. This analysis (1) reviews the business and legal risks that could arise when disinformation targets businesses, markets, and corporate leaders; (2) addresses potential causes of action that could be brought by victims of disinformation against the individual creators or propagators of malicious content, whether under long-established state and federal laws or under new laws enacted within the past year that specifically address deepfakes. And (3) reviews some best practices businesses can undertake today to prepare for these new exposures. While businesses are not defenseless in this new and different information environment, protecting entities and individuals will require forward thinking, preparation, and diligence. (co-author) (Originally published as a WilmerHale Client Alert (PDF) on March 12, 2020)​

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• The Federal “Deepfakes” Law, 3 Journal of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & Law 229 (2020) 

  • On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed the nation’s first federal law related to "deepfakes.” The law (1) requires a comprehensive report on the foreign weaponization of deepfakes; (2) requires the government to notify Congress of foreign deepfake-disinformation activities targeting US elections; and (3) establishes a “Deepfakes Prize” competition to encourage the research or commercialization of deepfake-detection technologies.​ (co-author)  (Originally published as a WilmerHale Client Alert (PDF) on December 23, 2019)

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• To Revitalize the Foreign Policy Center, Head to the Heartland: Mac Thornberry Calls for Renewed American Internationalism, 53 The Ripon Forum 26 (November 22, 2019)

  • At a time when America’s role in the world is being questioned by many, this article analyzes a series of “Heartland Speeches” on national security that U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry has been delivering around the country, compares them favorably to a similar effort launched by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the mid-1970s, and calls for a renewed, bipartisan embrace of American internationalism.​

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• Deepfake Legislation: A Nationwide Survey, WilmerHale Client Alert, September 25, 2019

  • Federal and state lawmakers across the nation are considering legislation to address what they see as the rising dangers of "deepfakes." Deepfakes are false yet highly realistic artificial intelligence-created video, audio and text. This white paper provides a comprehensive overview of all pending and adopted legislation in this fast-changing field--the first such publication to do so.

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• Texas Law Could Signal More State, Federal Deepfake Bans, Law 360, September 6, 2019

  • On Sept. 1, Texas became the first state in the nation to prohibit the creation or distribution of deepfake videos intended to harm candidates for public office or influence elections. Amid rising fears of the dangers of hyper-realistic, computer-altered fake photos and videos, Texas is now only the second state to impose penalties on the creation and propagation of deepfakes in certain circumstances. Other state houses around the country, as well as Congress, may adopt additional, comparable measures targeting deepfake technology over the next year.​

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• Bipartisan Group of Legislators Unveils Bill to Address Threat of “Deepfake” Videos, WilmerHale Client Alert, July 2, 2019

  • This piece summarizes the Deepfakes Report Act of 2019, introduced on June 28, 2019, which broadly defines “deepfakes” and lays out requirements and directives for the US Department of Homeland Security. One of several deepfakes bills proposed in the past few months, this represents the latest effort by federal and state lawmakers to address rising public concerns about the dangers posed by high-quality disinformation to the electoral process, national security, commercial and financial activity, and personal privacy. (co-author)​

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• Disinformation is Harming Businesses. Here are 6 Ways to Fight It, CNN Business, June 10, 2019​

  • This threat of disinformation to companies, brands, and markets will only get worse as disinformation attacks become more common and as deep fakes become more convincing and their use more widespread in both political and business spheres. So what can corporations do to protect their brands and valuations? Businesses and institutions should consider six measures that they can take before, during and after a disinformation attack.​

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• Environmental Deconfliction 2019: The National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2019, 49 Environmental Law Reporter 10220 (2019)

  • This analysis of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) argues that the annual U.S. defense legislation has “worldwide ramifications” and “may be one of the most significant pieces of energy and environmental legislation most people have never heard of.”  It addresses legislative provisions related to 1. Climate Resiliency, 2. Energy Management, 3. Hazardous Substances, and 4. Environment and Natural Resource Management.  (co-author) (The Environmental Law Reporter is published by the Environmental Law Institute.)

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• Fake News Threatens our Businesses, Not Just our Politics, The Washington Post, February 8, 2019, at B5

  • "Fake news" threatens not just politics but corporations, brands, and shareholders.  This under-theorized issue will become only more important as disinformation attacks become more common.  This article outlines a framework for thinking about threats in this space and proposes actions companies can take both before and after fake-news attacks occur. (co-author)

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• The World That Awaits: Foreign Policy Issues Confronting the 116th Congress, National Security Institute Law and Policy Paper, February 7, 2019

  • This law and policy paper introduces the immediate challenges found in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East that are making headlines today and considers how these issues contribute to the larger picture of global affairs in 2019.  It addresses recent developments that are driving policy decisions confronting the 116th Congress and anticipates the key questions that Congress will need to consider for these regions in the coming year. (co-author)​

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• Target of Disinformation, Brunswick Review, January 17, 2019

  • Much has been made about the rise of fake news--false reports that look like genuine news articles--and the threat it poses to elections and democracy in general.  Less well understood is the role disinformation can play in damaging the reputations of private corporations and institutions.  This Question-and-Answer article provides insight into what legal and crisis-management options C-suites may consider when faced with a crisis brought about by misinformation attacks. (co-author)​

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• War Against Wildfires a New Priority for House Armed Services Committee?, The Hill, November 29, 2018

  • The threat wildfires pose to the health and safety of the country is not a concern only of the US Forest Service and the Congress’s environmental committees. When the 116th Congress convenes in January 2019, expect legislative activity aimed at mitigating the dangers of wildfires from an unexpected place: the House Armed Services Committee under the probable chairmanship of Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.).​ (co-author)

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• Treasury Requires Mandatory Filings for Foreign Investments in Specified US Businesses, WilmerHale Client Alert, October 16, 2018

  • The U.S. Department of the Treasury recently released an interim rule that establishes a pilot program to implement portions of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act. Primarily, the pilot program (1) expands the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to cover certain non-controlling, non-passive investments in companies involved with critical technologies within specific industries, and (2) mandates that parties file declarations for transactions covered by the pilot program. (co-author)​

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• A Fleeting Philosophy? 'America First' Policy Could Fizzle Fast When Millennials Overtake Boomers, The Baltimore Sun, October 9, 2018, at 11

  • Survey data and immutable demographic trends argue that the President's foreign policy is not likely to endure for long as American society changes and millenials--who are hardwired internationalists--come to the fore.  (Published as 'America First' Will Likely Fizzle Fast on the Sun's website on October 8, 2018.  Reprinted in The Herald Review and The Korea Herald, among others.)

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• Key Energy Environment and Natural Resources Provisions of the 2019 Defense Bill, Law 360, August 9, 2018

  • The National Defense Authorization Act for 2019 will have a major impact on energy, environment, and natural resources policy. This article assesses five of the bill's key provisions in that space, including provisions relating to the study and remediation of toxic chemicals, known as PFAS, around military bases; the use of geothermal energy sales to support military bases; the declaration of wildfires as a threat to national security; the extended authorization for the taking of marine mammals by the Department of Defense; and the transfer of funds to cleanup the Agent Orange-remnant dioxin in Vietnam. (co-author)​ (Published as Top 5 NDAA Provisions on Energy and the Environment by Law 360.)

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• Congress Expands U.S. Government Review of Foreign Investments, WilmerHale Client Alert, August 2, 2018

  • The  Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 significantly modifies the rules for foreign investments in the United States. Because of this law, which reflects growing bipartisan concern that certain foreign transactions are diminishing U.S. technological superiority, navigating deal risks will likely grow more complex, for both U.S. sellers and foreign buyers. The law requires the Secretary of the Treasury to craft new regulations to implement many of its provisions. The rule-making process is likely to play out over the next year with a variety of opportunities for companies to engage with the Treasury Department about the new regulations. Interested parties will want to engage in the regulatory process and in the writing of guidelines and examples. (co-author)​

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• Environmental Deconfliction: The National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2018 and Its Implications for Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources, 18 Pratt's Energy Law Report 223 (2018)

  • The energy, environment, and natural resources issues involving the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) are significant.  With massive energy requirements across its worldwide operations, with legacy pollution and ongoing industrial scale operations at many military bases, and with millions of acres of habitat supporting endangered species as well as other natural resources, the DoD is acutely focused on matters related to energy, the environment, and natural resources. Analyzing the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act through this lens can provide valuable insights into DoD’s current priorities, challenges, and opportunities.​ (co-author)

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• Congress’ Overlooked Environmental Legislation, Law 360, June 11, 2018

  • The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is the most important piece of environmental legislation most people have never heard of.  As the single largest energy consumer in the world, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is acutely focused on matters related to energy, environment and natural resources.  The stealth environmental and energy lawmaking in the NDAA will have substantial effects on the DoD, its partners, and its contractors. During a period of congressional gridlock and controversy surrounding environmental policy, the 2018 NDAA already on the books and the 2019 NDAA now being written represent significant, if often overlooked, policymaking efforts in this critical area.  (co-author)

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• ​To Resist Disinformation, Learn to Think Like an Intelligence Analyst, 62 Studies in Intelligence 49 (2018)

  • ​​​The devious and sophisticated disinformation campaign Russia waged during the 2016 presidential election is a direct challenge to our citizenry’s ability to think critically, separate bad data from good, and avoid conspiratorial conceits.  Technological fixes from Silicon Valley may help stem some digital disinformation, but the surest guardian against deception rests between our ears—in our abilities to resist confirmation bias, think independently, and assess information with rational detachment.  To that end, everyday citizens could benefit from learning the kind of analytic techniques that the CIA has honed for generations. (co-authored with Preston Golson.  Reprinted in The Intelligencer)​

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• Cost-Sharing with State and Local Governments, WilmerHale Infrastructure Series, March 23, 2018

  • The White House's Infrastructure Plan calls for roughly $1.5 trillion in infrastructure investments over ten years .  However, federal spending would account for only $200 billion of that total.  The Administration's plan to make up the difference relies on "cost-sharing," a specialized way of shifting responsibility to state and local entities.  ​While the Administration has not elaborated on the specifics of its proposal, the example of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its history with cost-sharing provides a valuable case study that can inform how such initiatives among federal, state, and local entities may work--and their potential pitfalls. (co-author)

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• Not At Home: Reining in General Personal Jurisdiction After BNSF Railway Co. v. Tyrrell, 86 Bloomberg Law Insights 1293 (March 22, 2018)

  • The U.S. Supreme Court case BNSF Railway Co. v. Tyrell redefined the contours of a court’s jurisdictional reach by effectively subjecting corporations to general personal jurisdiction only in those states where they are incorporated or have their principal place of business. Dozens of courts across the country have relied on BNSF Railway to dismiss lawsuits under factual circumstances that, in the past, would almost certainly have sufficed for the exercise of general jurisdiction.  (co-author)

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• Speak to the Heartland: Lessons from Kissinger’s Defense of Détente, Real Clear Defense, January 3, 2018

  • To fortify support for liberal values and American internationalism, private citizens and public officials should revive an under-appreciated series of public addresses called the "heartland speeches" that Henry Kissinger gave in the mid-1970s.   In a campaign that can be called the "Heartland Speeches 2.0," Americans would speak to live audiences across the country in favor of the pragmatic and principled values and policies that have served America and the world well for the past 70 years.

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• Treasury Report Proposes Revamping Post-Crash Financial Regulation, WilmerHale Financial Regulation Alert, July 21, 2017​​

  • In the first of four reports to the President, the U.S. Department of the Treasury proposed significant changes to Obama-era banking regulations. The Report seeks to streamline supervision of the financial sector, give political appointees more influence over regulation, and exempt some institutions from rules, among other changes. (co-author)

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• How Can Foreign Policy Survive Trump? Look to the CIA, Overt Action, October 4, 2016

  • American intelligence agencies' little-appreciated relationships with foreign intelligence agencies have a history of weathering rough patches, and they may well provide the ballast American national security and foreign policy will need in a topsy-turvy Trump administration.

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• On the OPM Hack, Don't Let China Off the Hook, The Diplomat, July 14, 2015

  • By portraying the OPM attack as acceptable in the rough-and-tumble world of great power politics, the United States is needlessly surrendering valuable arguments that, if properly advanced, could mitigate Chinese aggression in cyberspace and elsewhere.

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• Challenge 2016 Candidates on Long-Term Security Policy, Cicero Magazine, June 18, 2015

  • The media has prompted the presidential candidates to articulate their positions on the so-called Islamic State while allowing them to stay mum on the growing challenge to world order in the South China Sea, in particular, and in Asia, generally. The candidates should address these challenges openly.  (Published originally on Overt Action on June 5, 2015).

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• Intelligence Reform 2.0, Defense One, April 21, 2015

  • On the tenth anniversary of the creation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, we need even more radical transformation as national-security challenges grow, budgets decrease, and questions arise about intelligence’s place within an open society. The U.S. should embrace six recommendations to make sure America's leaders and troops get the intelligence they need. (co-authored with David R. Shedd)

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• Petraeus' Double Standard, The Baltimore Sun, March 11, 2015, at 19A

  • There is a double standard whereby Gen. David Petraeus and a long, embarrassing line of national security principals have flouted information security rules and gotten off relatively easily while lower-level intelligence leakers have received harsher punishments. Such episodes breed cynicism among rank-and-file intelligence officers who bear the daily inconveniences of protecting secrets while the higher-ups do not.  (Published as The Petraeus Double Standard on the Sun's website on March 10, 2015.)

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• Intelligence Design: Putting the CIA's Reported Reorganization in Context, The National Interest, January 7, 2015

  • The reported CIA reorganization -- the proposal to break down bureaucratic walls between analysts and collectors and create more joint "centers" -- must be placed in the context of the larger post-9/11 intelligence reform movement. Such a redesign provides an important case study of how bureaucracies can change, and the CIA’s successful reorganization would be the most significant evidence yet that the intelligence reform effort, so often maligned, has succeeded at the place some thought it least likely, at the CIA itself.

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• The Case for Stronger Bhutanese-American Ties, The Diplomat, December 22, 2014

  • There are compelling "realist" and "idealist" arguments for strengthening U.S. ties with the small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, especially in response to growing Chinese influence in South Asia.

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• Millennials' Romance With Federal Service Need Not Last a Lifetime, Government Executive, November 6, 2014

  • ​The government should reorient its recruiting so that a larger percentage of new hires enter with the expectation that their tours will only constitute one chapter of long careers that span the private and public sectors. The millennial generation is tailor-made for this kind of initiative.

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• Spies Like Us: Why and How We Should Demystify American Intelligence, Overt Action, October 21, 2014

  • To increase the transparency of the intelligence community, the government must humanize the intelligence agencies, familiarize the public with their methods, and openly recognize error when the agencies have overstepped.

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• The Snowden Stigma, The Baltimore Sun, June 9, 2014, at 13A

  • The U.S. intelligence community does vital work within a network of laws and oversight, despite recent criticisms.  Young Americans should not let alleged CIA malevolence stop them from seeking work within the national security enterprise.

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• Ten Lessons From My Time as Assistant to the Big Boss, Government Executive, April 2, 2014

  • Personal experiences provide several best practices for assistants to government principals.

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• The Snowden Effect: How America’s Spy Agencies Can Fix Their Millennials Problem, Politico Magazine, March. 13, 2014

  • The intelligence community should launch a fellowship program to address the public's growing skepticism of intelligence work. (co-authored with Daniel Dolgin)

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• "Groundbreaking" or Broken? An Analysis of SEC Cybersecurity Disclosure Guidance, its Effectiveness & Implications, 77 Albany Law Review 297 (2014)

  • An analysis of government comment letters and corporate annual reports reveals that the Securities and Exchange Commission's corporate cybersecurity disclosure guidance errs on procedural and policy grounds.

    • SSRN | LexisNexis | Web | PDF
       

• Addressing Bhutan’s Refugee Crisis Through the Courts, The Diplomat, July 23, 2013

  • The Bhutanese constitution provides an innovative litigation strategy for denationalized Nepali-Bhutanese who seek residency status in Bhutan.

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• ​​Stateless in Shangri-La: Minority Rights, Citizenship, and Belonging in Bhutan, 48 Stanford Journal of International Law 504 (2012)

  • A new interpretation of the Bhutanese constitution can remedy the constitution's transgressions of international law norms related to its citizenship and nationalization provisions.

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• Working with China at the NSG, The Diplomat, June 24, 2011

  • A novel approach can resolve a WMD dispute between China and a little known but consequential international nonproliferation organization.

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• "Tough Going": Anglo-American Relations and the Yom Kippur War of 1973 (master's thesis presented in 2005)

  • Recently declassified evidence gives rise to a fresh analysis of the Arab-Israeli War and the attendant diplomacy among the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, Egypt, and Israel.

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