Transatlantic relations and the question of cybersecurity

Charly Salonius-Pasternak is a Senior Research Fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. His work at FIIA focuses on international security issues, especially Nordic and transatlantic security (including NATO), as well as U.S. foreign and defence policy. Recently he has focused on Finnish-Swedish defence cooperation and the evolution of US and NATO alliance reassurance approaches in light of the changed regional security situation. In 2017, he was a visiting research fellow at the Changing Character of War programme at Pembroke College (Oxford University), where he studied the hybridization of warfare and the impact of the Information Age on the character of war.

Christopher Painter is a globally recognized leader on cyber policy, cyber diplomacy, cybersecurity and combatting cybercrime. He has been at the vanguard of cyber issues for over 27 years, first as a federal prosecutor handling some of the most high-profile cyber cases in the U.S., then as a senior official at the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI, the White House National Security Council and, finally, as the world’s first cyber diplomat at the U.S. Department of State. Among other things, Mr Painter currently serves as a commissioner on the Global Commission for the Stability of Cyberspace and chairs a working group on cyber capacity for the Global Forum for Cyber Expertise. He is a frequent speaker on cyber issues, frequently is interviewed and quoted in the media and has testified on numerous occasions to U.S. Congressional committees. He received his B.A. from Cornell University and J.D. from Stanford Law School.

Deborah A. McCarthy is an expert on U.S. foreign and national security policy with over 30 years of diplomatic experience. Currently, she is a Fellow at Harvard University. She is also consultant with the Transnational Security Group and the producer of the national security podcast “The General and the Ambassador” (https://www.generalambassadorpodcast.org). She served as the U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania from 2013 to 2016. Previously, she was the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs. Ms McCarthy also served as Deputy Ambassador at the U.S. Embassy in Greece and the U.S. Embassy in Nicaragua. In Washington, she was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Narcotics and Law Enforcement, the Senior Advisor for Counter Terrorism and the Special Coordinator for Venezuela. Other diplomatic postings include: Consul General Montreal, Economic Counselor U.S. Embassy Paris, Financial Economist U.S. Embassy Rome and assignments in the Dominic Republic and Haiti.