Join the Cyber Policy Center October 8th, from 1 PM-2 PM, for the next seminar in our Fall Seminar Series. Sessions will run October through December and will be moderated by Nate Persily, co-director of the CPC. Samantha Bradshaw, Director of the Center for Security, Innovation, and New Technology at American University and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign Policy & Global Security, joins us for her talk Exporting Autocracy: How Foreign Influence Operations Shape Attitudes About Democracy.

 Stanford affiliates are invited to join us at 12:40 PM for lunch, prior to the seminar. Please note the change in time this fall.

About the Seminar

Recent studies indicate that nearly all democratic gains achieved over the past 35 years had eroded by 2022, coinciding with a dramatic rise in disinformation campaigns. While some scholars argue that FIOs have played a crucial role in this democratic decline, others dispute the evidence of such backsliding or suggest that these information campaigns have minimal political impact. Through an analysis of democratic sentiments across 15 African nations from 2009 to 2023, Dr. Bradshaw will present compelling evidence about the impact of FIOs on democratic attitudes, demonstrating that regular exposure to FIOs significantly undermines support for democratic norms, particularly in relation to increased Russian activity.

About the Speaker

Dr. Samantha Bradshaw is the Director of the Center for Security, Innovation, and New Technology at American University and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign Policy & Global Security. She also currently holds a Lightning Scholar Fellowship at Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research examines issues around emerging technology, democracy, and security, including disinformation and foreign influence operations. Dr. Bradshaw obtained her D.Phil. from Oxford University in 2020 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University between 2020-2022.