Newsletter
March 2026
An overview of the TPI team's key updates and accomplishments in March.
Feature
Gudni Th. Johannesson, former Icelandic President, visits Cornell
Gudni Th. Johannesson, President of Iceland from 2016 to 2024 and now Professor at the University of Iceland, visited Cornell as part of the Messenger Lecture series. Fellows engaged with him during a Polar Frontlines simulation on Arctic security and hybrid threats, written by the institute and run with the Aerospace ADVERSARY Lab and the Homeland Defense Institute. Fellows also joined him for a breakfast where he shared stories from his time as Head of State and how his background as a historian shaped his connection with Icelandic citizens and leaders. He delivered a History of Iceland lecture during the visit.
New fellows
The institute welcomed a new cohort this month.
Dr. Michael Brenes
Senior Lecturer in Global Affairs at Yale and Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for International Policy. His work has been published in The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Politico, The New Republic, Dissent, Boston Review, The Nation, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. He is currently writing a history of the War on Terror from the 1990s to the present, to be published by Grove Atlantic.
The full cohort
Michael Brenes as Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Anna Blechova as Fellow, and Katie Winton, Thej Khanna, Saanvi Puri, Karolina Ostrowski, Lucas Galioglu, Johnny Mou, Tami Omole, Kashyap Rajesh, and G. Luke Flores as Junior Fellows.
Junior Fellow spotlight
Every month we highlight a fellow. This month, Kayla Schechter.
Kayla Schechter
A junior studying Public Policy in the Jeb E. Brooks School. On campus she is a student organiser for the TEDx conference team, a Brooks School peer mentor, a scholar of the Institute of Politics and Global Affairs, and a former Democracy Fellow with the Center on Global Democracy. She is currently studying at Cornell's Washington DC campus, where she is interning with the US Global Leadership Coalition and providing research assistance at CSIS's Strategic Technologies Program under Lauryn Williams.
Tech Talks in Focus
Michael Kelly
Director of Education at the Bitcoin Discovery Center and Professor in Religious Studies, Bitcoin and AI at Binghamton University, spoke with the institute about bitcoin and crypto mining.
Adam Maltz
Deputy Bureau Chief in the Cybercrime and Identity Theft Bureau of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, on collaborations investigating and prosecuting complex cases including money laundering, SIM swapping, fraud, dark-web activity, and cryptocurrency-related crime.
Vivek Kundra
COO at The Trade Desk and former White House Chief Information Officer, on public-private partnerships and a career bridging government and industry.
Chinasa T. Okolo
Founder of Technecultura and a Policy Specialist at the United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies, on AI governance and safety for the Global Majority, datafication and algorithmic marginalisation, and the geopolitical impacts of AI.
LTC Paul Lushenko
Discussed his operational experience and academic research on drones, emerging technologies, and national security, and reflected on how modern warfare, public perceptions, and policy are evolving.
Community updates
Quoted by The Hill on the dispute between Anthropic and the Department of Defense.
Published an article on satellite communication vulnerabilities.
Quoted in a KGW article on President Trump's 10 percent global tariff.
Published an op-ed on the 2025 US National Security Strategy.
Analysed the Iran war in an article for Lawfare.
James Patton Rogers
Discussed US drone use in Operation Epic Fury for The i Paper.
Greg Falco and Elizabeth Redmond
Attended the 2026 Arctic Edge Counter UAS Academic Tabletop Exercise in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Featured in a New York Times article on the Trump administration's Cyber Strategy for America.
Interviewed by The Guardian on the tension between the Department of Defense and Anthropic.
James Patton Rogers
Spoke with Business Insider about drone use in warfare, and how drones take the life out of a city.
Spoke on CNBC's Closing Bell Overtime about an Iranian cyberattack against med-tech company Stryker.
Education and outreach
Drone Warfare in South Asia
The Stimson Center is offering a new free online course on drone warfare in South Asia with videos and content from James Patton Rogers. The course studies the May 2025 India-Pakistan conflict and various concepts in drone warfare.
Policy infographic on Anthropic and the Department of Defense
The institute has created an interactive timeline mapping the tensions between Anthropic and the Department of Defense, who the key players are, and what is at stake.
eCornell Country Risk Analysis Certificate Program
A certificate programme developed by James Patton Rogers, designed to sharpen analytical skills for professionals engaged in multinational business, global investment assessment, or foreign policy work.