UAA College of Business and Public Policy

Dr. Chad Briggs Briefs National and International Groups on Disinformation and Hybrid Warfare

Dr. Chad Briggs contributed expertise on the topic of hybrid and cyber warfare to a conference organized by the Emerging Security Challenges division of NATO’s Partnership for Peace Consortium. The week-long online conference was based in Munich, Germany, and included around 50 experts from Europe and North America. Briggs was one of the few participants from the United States. Tuning in from Anchorage, he shifted to a middle-of-the-night schedule for the week to align with Central European Time Zone, which is ten hours ahead of Alaska Time.

The conference addressed disinformation and the COVID-19 pandemic, and Dr. Briggs spoke on the nature of disinformation as a part of hybrid warfare in the US during the pandemic.

Earlier in September, he briefed a different group on Russian grey zone operations in the Arctic. The Arctic Synchronization Forum is a joint group of US and Canadian military commands (ALCOM, NORAD, NORTHCOM), along with other US government experts who focus on Arctic security. Dr. Briggs explained the background of Russian military interests in the Arctic, including Alaska, and how to interpret their actions in a strategic context.

Participation the Partnership for Peace Consortium and the Arctic Synchronization Forum relate to Dr. Briggs’ research interests. “They also relate to broader policy questions we address at the College of Business and Public Policy,” he explained, “particularly information warfare/disinformation, response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and increasing resilience of our communities to these stresses. Many of these international challenges arise from pressures we share in Alaska, from COVID to energy economics to climate change. These are topics we tackle in our graduate programs.”

About Dr. Briggs

Dr. Chad Briggs is the Director of Graduate Studies and an Associate Professor of Public Policy. He has taught at various universities around the world and has been published widely in areas from military strategy to post-conflict health and medicine. Dr. Briggs has a PhD in Political Science from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, a Master of Arts in International Relations from Limerick University in Ireland, and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Recent related publications

Disaster Security, Cambridge University Press (2019)
“Features of ensuring cybersecurity of the critical infrastructure of the state,” Journal of Theoretical and Applied Cybersecurity (2020)
“Hitting Home: Cyber-Hybrid Warfare in Ukraine and Its Impact on the United States,” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs (2020)