Expert Bio

Dr. Melissa K. Griffith is a Lecturer in Technology and National Security at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and the Alperovitch Institute for Cybersecurity Studies and a Non-Resident Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC). She works at the intersection between technology and national security, specializing in cybersecurity, semiconductors, and 5G networks with a focus on national risk and resilience models. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins SAIS, Griffith was the Director of Emerging Technology and National Security and a Senior Program Associate with the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Science and Technology Innovation Program (STIP); a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC); a Visiting Scholar at George Washington University's Institute for International Science and Technology Policy (IISTP); a Visiting Research Fellow at the Research Institute on the Finnish Economy (ETLA) in Helsinki, Finland; and a Visiting Researcher at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in Brussels, Belgium. Griffith holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.A. in International Relations from Agnes Scott College.

For additional information (including a comprehensive list of publications, prior positions and affiliations, presentations and public appearances, and teaching experience) please visit www.melissakgriffith.com.

Wilson Center Project

“The Mice that Roar: The Pursuit of National Defense in Cyberspace.”

Project Summary

By focusing specifically on how a subset of relatively small yet successful states, the Mice that Roar, have pursued national cyber defense, Griffith’s research challenges two prevailing assumptions in security studies and cyber conflict scholarship: (1) that larger states with more resources will be better positioned to provide national defense for their populations and (2) that national cyber defense, as a central task of states, represents an unprecedented departure from the historical requirements of national defense in the domains of air, land, and sea (i.e. that it represents a new type of defense problem for states to address). Griffith specifically examine how pre-existing models for kinetic national defense (air, land, and sea) affect the subsequent organizational structure and efficacy of national cyber defense efforts. Griffith argues that the pre-existing national defense models of the Mice that Roar provide an institutional foundation that is better suited to the realities of addressing cybersecurity at the national level than the kinetic defense model pursued by the U.S.

Major Publications

• “A comprehensive security approach: bolstering Finnish cybersecurity capacity” Journal of Cyber Policy, Vol 3, Issue 3 (2019): 407-429. Earlier version published as a BASC Working Paper. https://doi.org/10.1080/23738871.2018.1561919
• “International Security and the Strategic Dynamics of Cyberspace” with Adam Segal analyzing the state of International Relations and International Security research on cyber conflict for Columbia University SIPA and the Cyber Conflict Studies Association (CCSA) (Fall 2018).
• “Task Force Report on Strengthening the EU’s Cyber Defence Capabilities” for the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) (November 26, 2018). Main author.