With the inauguration of Péter Magyar, Hungary has a new prime minster for the first time in 16 years. This episode explores what this means for the nation and for Europe.
Guest Biographies
Julian G. Waller is an expert in Russian political-military affairs, elite strategic decision-making, adversary systems of governance, and civil-military relations outside the West. He is also a scholar of the politics of authoritarian rule, authoritarian political and social orders, and illiberal/postliberal ideologies globally.
Further Reading
Julian’s Substack: Political Order(s)
This episode covers Balance, a learning game that helps law enforcement supervisors protect the emotional well-being of their officers.
Guest Biographies
Brittany Cunningham is an expert in scientific research and analysis and has more than a decade of experience designing, implementing and managing rigorous research studies and evaluations at the local, state and national level.
Geoff Smith is a former police chief and an expert on law enforcement and fire policies, operations and oversight. He has substantial expertise in technology, including deployment of in-car and body-worn camera systems, cell phone forensics, as well as active shooter training.
Further Reading
CNA—Balance: A Command Operations and Resilience Game
If you are interested in running Balance at your agency you can contact Brittany at Cunninghamb@cna.org.
This episode explores CNA’s Arsenal of Policy wargame, which is designed to explore opportunities to strengthen, improve, and expand the US defense industrial base (DIB).
Guest Biographies
Sarah Fusco is a specialist in international and non-traditional security threats. Her work focuses on emergent security challenges such as increasing partner capabilities in maritime security and domain awareness, countering violent extremism, and analyzing complex challenges through wargaming.
Kaia Haney is an expert in African security, specializing in strategic competition on the continent and the African security environment. She has played a leading role in CNA wargames on the defense industrial base and the African operational environment.
Further Reading
CNA Report—Arsenal of Policy: Defense Industrial Base Wargame Final Report
Experts discuss how AI tools can address challenges in the field of criminal justice and how these tools can be used ethically.
Guest Biographies
Vivian Elliot is the Director of CNA’s Center for Justice Research and Innovation. She is an expert in criminal justice and emergency preparedness. She specializes in law enforcement organizational reform; after-action analysis; training and technical assistance; and exercise planning, facilitation and evaluation.
L. Cait Kanewske is a Research Scientist in CNA’s Center for Justice Research and Innovation.
Iran has a new Supreme Leader for the first time in almost 37 years, Mojtaba Khamenei. This episode explores his background, education, and ideology.
Guest Biographies
Michael Connell is an expert in Persian-Gulf security-related issues, the armed forces of Iran, U.S.-GCC security cooperation, and adversary cyber policy and strategy. He has served as CNA's Field Analyst to Naval Forces Central Command.
Further Reading
CNA Talks: Iran’s Stability in the Aftermath of the Grand Bazaar Protests
CNA Report: The Evolving Russia-Iran Relationship
This episode examines how the ubiquitous presence of drones in the Ukraine War has shaped the conflict.
Guest Biographies
Samuel Bendett (@sambendett) is an advisor with CNA’s Russia Studies Program. His research focuses on Russian defense and technology developments; uncrewed, robotic and autonomous military systems; artificial intelligence; and Russian military capabilities.
As we enter the fifth year of war in Ukraine, experts from CNA’s Russia Studies program sit down to discuss what the war has revealed about the Russian way of war.
Guest Biographies
Dmitry Gorenburg is a Senior Research Scientist in CNA’s Russia Studies Program. He is an expert on security issues in the former Soviet Union, the Russian military, Russian foreign policy, and ethnic politics and identity.
Michael Petersen is a principal research scientist in CNA's Russia Studies Program. He is an expert on Russian military strategy, operations, and net assessments of high-intensity conflict. From 2023-2024, he served as senior advisor to Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti.
Further Reading
CNA Report: Russia's Evolving Threat Perceptions Since 2022
This episode covers the most recent wave of protests in Iran, what they mean for the government’s stability, and how US regional allies are responding.
Guest Biographies
Michael Connell is an expert in Persian-Gulf security-related issues, the armed forces of Iran, U.S.-GCC security cooperation, and adversary cyber policy and strategy. He has served as CNA's Field Analyst to Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT).
Further Reading
CNA Talks: How Stable is Iran?
InDepth: Russia and China Respond—or Don’t—to the 12-Day War in Iran
The Oreshnik Comes to Belarus
Belarus has become the latest stage for Russia’s military ambitions, hosting the powerful Oreshnik missile system. We discuss the specifics of this missile system, and what this deployment means for NATO.
Guest Biographies
Decker Eveleth is an Associate Research Analyst with CNA’s Countering Threats and Challenges Program. He specializes in open-source analysis.
Gabriela Iveliz Rosa-Hernandez is an Associate Research Analyst at the CNA Russia Studies Program. Her research centers on security orders, deterrence issues, and Russia’s security policy, supplemented by her significant in-country experience living in Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, and other countries in the region.
Further Reading
CNA Report: When Nuclear Weapons Return to Belarus: Evolving Concepts in Russian Escalation Strategy
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: The ‘Zapad’ exercise and how Lukashenko learned to love the Bomb
CNA is committed to using the latest technology to help us deliver for our sponsors. In this episode, we discuss how we are integrating our LLM, Morse Code, into our research process.
Guest Biographies
Dr. Jonathan Schroden is the Chief Research Officer within the Office of the President at the CNA Corporation. In this role, he oversees CNA's Research Office, including the life cycle of research quality excellence, our independent research program, research publications, editing, and support, human subjects research compliance, and research modernization and data governance.
Gregor Goodman is CNA's chief AI officer, acting as the end-to-end technology interlock between study sponsors and CNA on the largest high-impact projects. He works together with business and research leaders to build a technology partnership, ensuring that offered technical solutions deliver exceptional results for clients.
Erin Mohres is the managing director of CNA’s Center for Homeland Security and Infrastructure Resilience.
Further Reading
CNA: AI Maturity Model for Government Agencies
Microsoft: CNA and Cloudforce deploy trusted AI to advance national security work