About the Expert
Expert Bio
David P. Fidler is adjunct senior fellow for cybersecurity and global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is an expert in international law, cybersecurity, national security, terrorism, counterinsurgency, international trade, biosecurity, and global health.
Fidler has served as an international legal consultant to the World Bank (on foreign investment in Palestine); the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (on global health issues); the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Science Board (on bioterrorism); the Scientists Working Group on Biological and Chemical Weapons of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation; U.S. Joint Forces Command (on rule of law issues in stability operations); the Interagency Afghanistan Integrated Civilian-Military Pre-Deployment Training Course organized by the Departments of Defense, State and Agriculture and the U.S. Agency for International Development; and various initiatives undertaken by non-governmental organizations in the areas of global health and arms control. He served as chair for an International Law Association study group on terrorism, cybersecurity, and international law.
Fidler’s publications include The Snowden Reader (editor and contributor, Indiana University Press, 2015); India and Counterinsurgency: Lessons Learned (co-editor and contributor, Routledge, 2009); Responding to National Security Letters: A Practical Guide for Legal Counsel (co-author, American Bar Association, 2009); Biosecurity in the Global Age: Biological Weapons, Public Health, and the Rule of Law (co-author, Stanford University Press, 2008); and SARS, Governance, and the Globalization of Disease (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).
Fidler has been a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a Fulbright New Century Scholar, and a Truman Scholar from Kansas. He holds a BCL from the University of Oxford, JD from Harvard Law School, MPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford, and BA from the University of Kansas.
Affiliations
- American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Project on Rethinking the Humanitarian Health Response to Violent Conflict, member of advisory board
- Committee on Planetary Protection of the Space Studies Board of the National Academies of Sciences, member
- Lancet-Chatham House Commission for Improving Population Health Post COVID-19, commissioner
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During its fifteen years, PEPFAR has become one of the most important global health initiatives ever launched. However, its influence is fading, threatening the global fight against HIV/AIDS as the struggle against the pandemic faces a turning point.
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Governments, critical infrastructure, and economies rely on space-dependent services—for example, the Global Positioning System (GPS)—that are vulnerable to hostile cyber operations. However, few spacefaring states and companies have paid any attention to the cybersecurity of satellites in outer space, creating a number of risks.
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The events of the 2016 U.S. election demonstrate that more high-level political action is required to manage real and perceived cyber vulnerabilities in election systems.
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