IDA Research Staff participate actively in various professional activities – both within their disciplines and ancillary to them – including publishing in the open literature. Below are some recent citations of IDA Researchers and their work.
IDA President Norty Schwartz greeted distinguished visitors from Japan as part of an allies and partners event for the Joint Staff J4 on February 28. Photo (l-r): IDA VP for Research Laura Baldwin; Director for Logistics, J4 Lt. Gen. Leonard Kosinski; Defense and Air Attaché Maj. Gen. Hiroyuki Sugai; Commander, Maritime Materiel Command VADM Yoshitaka Ozama; IDA President Norty Schwartz; and IDA Joint Advanced Warfighting Director Dan Chiu.
Caroline Milne wrote “Alternative Futures: ROK Nuclear Weapons and the U.S.-ROK Alliance,” published on the Korea Economic Institute’s (KEI’s) blog The Peninsula. Caroline’s piece is one of 12 contributions to KEI’s special project on South Korea’s nuclear armament debate running on the blog.
Anna Konstrorum shared her STEM story on Her Maths Story, a platform dedicated to encouraging and empowering self-identifying women to pursue careers in mathematics and beyond.
IDA hosted the kick-off event announcing the launch of the Defense Management Institute (DMI). Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks (shown) and Pentagon Performance Improvement Officer Michael Donley made the announcement joined by IDA President Norty Schwartz (shown) and IDA Senior Fellow Peter Levine. Levine will serve as director of DMI, a new initiative committed to building a network of expertise and a community of practice in the management, organization, performance improvement and enterprise business operations of the Department of Defense.
Michael Fischerkeller authored “A Cyber Persistence Way to Countermeasures,” published in Lawfare. The article describes ways in which international law could be reinterpreted to make it more relevant in the context of cyberspace.
Linda Bishai and Laura Cleary coauthored “The US Needs a Strategy for (Human) Security Cooperation,” published in Just Security. Based on previous research and an IDA CRP-funded framework for assessing human rights in security cooperation, the article argues that a human security approach, integrated comprehensively into training modules and assessments, would improve security cooperation outcomes.
Jim Thorne authored, “Leveraging Gravitational Complexity for Better Orbits,” for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Astrodynamics Technical Committee. The article appeared in the December 2022 year-in-review issue of Aerospace America, published by AIAA.
Miriam Roday published, “Starting Your Search for a Foreign Policy Internship,” in the Young Professionals in Foreign Policy’s Charged Affairs blog. In the article, she provides advice on how to navigate the wealth of internship options in the national security and foreign policy space. She details the core responsibilities, daily experiences and key takeaways from various internships, including at think tanks and government agencies and on Capitol Hill.
CCR-L Director Skip Garibaldi co-designed a series of posters called "Illustrating the Impact of the Mathematical Sciences” for a project organized by the National Academies’ Board of Mathematical Sciences and Analytics.
John Warden was recognized in the Congressional Record in December for his exceptional work during a year-long fellowship with the House Armed Services Committee. The HASC’s Strategic Forces Subcommittee chairman Jim Cooper commended John for his expertise and contributions in advising the subcommittee on the U.S. nuclear weapons portfolio during the second session of the 117th Congress.
The Senate explanatory statement for the 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act cited IDA’s Cost Analysis & Research Division’s independent cost estimate for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Electronic Health Record Modernization Program. The cost estimate was cited as a source of information for the program’s resource requirements and a guide for updating the program’s Life Cycle Cost Estimate.
Jeff Riemer moderated a Program Executive Officer Panel at the 2022 Air Armament Symposium hosted by the National Defense Industrial Association. The topics discussed included weapons acquisition strategies, weapons integration on current and future platforms, and test resources necessary to test in a Joint All Domain Command and Control environment. Panelists included Maj. Gen. Anthony Genatempo, Brig. Gen. William Rogers, Brig. Gen. Dale White, Brig. Gen. Luke Cropsey and Brig. Gen. Jason Bartolomei.
Michael Fischerkeller wrote “Cyber Signaling: Deeper Case Research Tells a Different Story,” published in the journal Security Studies. In the article, Michael argues that the hypotheses offered by Erica Lonergan and Shawn Lonergan in their article on the role of cyber operations in crisis management are not supported by their case studies.
The Hoover Institution acquired the papers of Stanley Riveles. The collection consists of documents, records, correspondence, printed matter, notes and electronic files related to Stanley’s career in national security and arms control.
Akar Bharadvaj gave a talk, “Players and Users: Wargaming as a User Experience (UX) Design Problem,” at a Georgetown University Wargaming Society event on January 24. A recording is available.
Shirley Han, Wil Doane and Tyler Morgan-Wall spoke at the Government and Public Sector R Conference. The hybrid event was held at Georgetown University and online on December 1-2.
Janet Sater received the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Dedicated Service Award on September 12 at the 2022 Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures, and Intelligent Systems (SMASIS) Conference. The ASME Board of Governors established the award to honor dedicated voluntary service to the society marked by outstanding performance, demonstrated effective leadership, prolonged and committed service, devotion, enthusiasm and faithfulness.
Jake Roberts coauthored “Incorporating Measurement Variability When Comparing Sets of High-Resolution Mass Spectra,” published in Analytica Chimica Acta.
Linda Urrutia-Varhall was named to the Defense Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. The committee is composed of civilian women and men who are appointed by the Secretary of Defense to provide advice and recommendations on matters and policies relating to the improvement of racial/ethnic diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunity within the Defense Department with a primary focus on military personnel.
Paul Fanto won the Eugene P. Visco prize for his presentation, “Resilient Position Data Fusion with a Generic Kalman Filter Method,” at the MORS 2022 Emerging Techniques Forum. The Visco prize recognizes excellence in research quality, contributions and presentation from early career and Junior Analysts conducting impactful, technically rigorous and multi-disciplinary research.
Michael Fischerkeller was cited in a recently published Washington Post article. The information in the opinion piece is based on “Cyber Persistence Theory: Redefining National Security in Cyberspace,” the book he coauthored with Emily Goldman and Richard Harknett.
Jeffrey McKitrick and Robert Angevine spoke at a book launch event for “Reflections on Net Assessment,” featuring newly released interviews with Andy Marshall, one of the longest-serving defense intellectuals in the United States. Vago Muradian of the Defense and Aerospace Report was moderator. IDA co-hosted the event with the Andrew W. Marshall Foundation at our Potomac Yard facility. The event was held on October 6, 2022. 
Linda Bishai was interviewed following the annual U.S. Special Operations Command Africa (USSOCAF) Silent Warrior Conference. Earlier this month, Silent Warrior hosted a diverse set of participants from African partner nations and other partners from across the globe congregating to solve common problems in Africa.
Keith Crane was interviewed for the Financial Times article entitled, “The Race to Reinvent the Space Station.”
Carly Cox and Matthew Hepburn, Office of Science and Technology Policy, served as panelists on a webinar hosted by the Council on Strategic Risks (CSR) titled, “The American Pandemic Preparedness Plan: One Year of Progress & The Path Forward.” Bloomberg’s Janet Wu moderated the discussion. Carly discussed the 2022 Annual Report on the American Pandemic Preparedness Plan and its implications for biosecurity. A recording is available on CSR’s YouTube channel.
Prashant Patel co-presented with Daniel Scheeres, the University of Colorado Boulder, the paper “Space, The Finite Frontier: Rapidly Computing the Reachability of Electric Propulsion Spacecraft” at the Astrodynamics Specialist Conference. The conference, hosted by the American Astronautical Society and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, was held August 11-17 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Stephanie Burchard, Dorina Bekoe, Linda Bishai, Ashton Callahan, Sarah Daly and Galen Petruso helped execute and moderate the annual Silent Warrior conference, sponsored by U.S. Special Operations Command Africa. The conference focused on security in Africa and drivers that fuel violent extremist organization recruitment efforts. Speakers examined topics of U.S. and international security partner interest and assessed opportunities to mitigate a variety of threats to safety and security on the continent. Attendees from 37 countries, including 20 African partners, participated in the conference, held August 15-18 in Garmisch, Germany.
Michael Fischerkeller was interviewed by Stewart Baker and Dave Aitel for an episode of The Cyberlaw Podcast: Cyber Persistence, a series produced by Lawfare. In the episode, Michael discusses “Cyber Persistence Theory: Redefining National Security in Cyberspace,” the book he coauthored with Emily Goldman and Richard Harknett.
Alison Lawrence presented at George Mason University’s 26th Annual Conference on Atmospheric Transport and Dispersion Modeling on July 28. She presented the briefing “Leveraging Atmospheric Transport and Dispersion Modeling to Evaluate Chemical Warfare Agent Secondary Evaporation Models in the Context of Military Operations” that she co-authored with Nathan Platt and Matthew Mendonca. Visit the conference website for more information.
Carly Cox was selected to join the 2022-2023 class of the Fellowship for Ending Bioweapons. The six-member class will work with leading experts to generate ideas for ending the threat of biological weapons. The fellowship is hosted by The Nolan Center, an institute of the Council on Strategic Risks.
James Bexfield teamed with Bob Sheldon of the Group W Inc. to deliver a MORS Talk, “What the Old-Timers Advised: Perspectives From Two That Knew Them.” The May 6 talk is Episode 70 of the series.
Michael Fischerkeller authored “A Cyber Persistence Way to Norms,” published in Lawfare. The article identifies shortcomings of the United Nations-based approach to norms for managing ongoing cyber threats to international peace and stability and proposes a new approach of cyber persistence for cultivating conformance to explicitly proposed cyber norms and tacitly proposing new norms.
Yuna Wong served as a panelist on “Inclusivity in Wargaming and Impacts for Defense Planning,” hosted by CNA. Yuna discussed the challenges that women face in wargaming, and she brought up the Women’s Wargaming Network that she helped found and is continuing to grow. A recording of the May 18 online event is available.
Asha Balakrishnan spoke on the “International Space Station National Lab – AS-ME Anything” panel at ASME Policy Impact 2022. Asha, a former American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) Congressional Fellow, provided a general policy lens to the conversation with scientists and engineers who send experiments to the International Space Station. She discussed some of the challenges facing the field but also opportunities for ASME members to become more involved in space activities. The panel occurred on May 18, the second day of the three-day event.
Brad Johnson coauthored a paper with Maitraye Sen, Joshua Hanson, Salvador García-Muñoz and Nikolaos Sahinidis. The paper, “Stochastic Analysis and Modeling of Pharmaceutical Screw Feeder Mass Flow Rates,” was published in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics. The coauthors propose a hybrid deterministic-stochastic screw feeder flowsheet model.
David Markov was quoted throughout an Air Force Magazine article titled, “Dependence on Russian Aircraft Engines Could Prompt China to ‘Fix Their… Problem.’” In the article, David offers an explanation on why China is still lagging in the area of fighter engine production. David discussed the topic of military cooperation between China and Russia on a panel at the China Aerospace Studies Institute conference on May 17.
Akar Bharadvaj and Kevin Woods coauthored “When Strongmen Invade, They Bring Their Pathologies With Them,” featured in War on the Rocks. The authors highlight parallels between the early phases of Iraq’s invasion of Iran in 1980 and Russia’s current invasion of Ukraine.
Michael Fischerkeller wrote a Lawfare blog titled “What Does 2022 NDS Fact Sheet Imply for the Forthcoming Cyber Strategy?” The DOD’s 2-page fact sheet on the 2022 National Defense Strategy (NDS) identifies campaigning as a way to advance DOD goals of gaining advantages against the full range of competitors’ coercive actions, undermining acute forms of competitor coercion, and complicating competitors’ military preparations. In the post, Michael argues that campaigning is at the core of DOD’s current cyber strategy of defend forward/persistent engagement and that, therefore, the same goals should be expected in DOD’s forthcoming cyber strategy.
David Markov spoke as a panelist at the third biennial China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI) Conference at the National Defense University on May 17. The conference focused on Great Power Competition and Deterrence.
Rachel Lindbergh spoke at the Day One event hosted by Advanced Technology International (ATI) with students about her past experience as an intern. ATI leads an initiative to provide computer science and cybersecurity experience to underrepresented students from historically black colleges and universities (HCBUs). The Day One event on May 9 was a celebration of the guided internship program.
Nick Wagner spoke on a panel at the Naval Postgraduate School’s 19th Annual Acquisition Research Program Symposium on May 12, 2022. Nick’s panel paper includes a proposal to extend existing software acquisition program data management systems to increase the speed and effectiveness of oversight.
Vanessa Peña presented a panel paper, “Analysis of the Federal L2M Prize Competition Submitter Ecosystem and Federal Partners” at the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM) Conference. The panel highlighted examples of how information technology intersects to inform policy, and the presentation described the development of an innovative dashboard to analyze the prize community.
Rachel Lindbergh gave a TEDx talk in Boca Raton, Florida, during which she described why so many people give up on finding their place in space and shared her story to explain why they shouldn’t.
Taft Blackburn, Keith Detwiler and Alex Shykov coauthored “Assessing the Russian Army Performance After One Week of War,” published in RealClearDefense. The authors offer initial considerations on the Russian military’s planning, integration of key enablers, maneuver and tactical proficiency after one week to explain some key shortcomings.
IDA researchers Taft Blackburn, Miriam Roday and Alex Shykov coauthored “ Looking at the Long-Term Ukraine Crisis,” published in RealClearDefense. The authors argue that fixating on the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine risks missing the forest for the trees. In contemplating policy responses to Putin’s recent aggression, the West must consider the underlying issues that have created the crisis and will extend this long-term competition: ambiguity over Ukraine’s role in Europe, competing views over Russia’s place in the world and Moscow’s increasingly tight hold on Belarus.
Miriam Roday and Sarah Daly co-authored “Information Operations: An Understudied Facet of Russian Influence in Africa,” published in Foreign Policy News. Miriam and Sarah posit that Russia’s weaponization of information is an understudied component of its strategic influence efforts in Africa that presents immediate security threats to democracy across the continent and here at home.
Michael Fischerkeller appeared on “Government Matters” January 26 at 8:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. on WJLA 24/7 News. The interview is also available on their YouTube channel.
Laura Epifanovskaya authored “When Software Bugs Go Nuclear: Testing a Digital Arsenal,” featured in War on the Rocks.
