Dr. Melissa K. Griffith is a Lecturer in Technology and National Security at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) with 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). From cybersecurity to tech security, Griffith works at the intersection between technology, national security, and economic statecraft with a specialization in cybersecurity, semiconductors, and machine learning/artificial intelligence.
Griffith's book project investigates how relatively small countries, with limited resources, have become significant providers of national cyber-defense for their populations. Her work sheds important light on the components and dynamics of cyber power and cyber conflict, as well as the vital role that public-private cooperation and both security and economic policy play in cyber-defense. Concurrent research projects examine (1) the geopolotical and national security implications of semiconductors (their supply chains and use-cases); (2) collective defense and resilience in cyberspace; and (3) emerging technologies and great power competition.
Previously, Griffith was the Director of Emerging Technology and National Security and a Senior Program Associate at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Science and Technology Innovation Program (STIP); a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC); an Affiliated Researcher at UC Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC); a Visiting Scholar at George Washington University's Institute for International Science & 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. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley (2020); an M.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley (2014); and a B.A. in International Relations from Agnes Scott College (2011). She was an English Teaching Assistant with the Fulbright Program from 2012-2013.