Corneliu Bjola is Professor of Digital Diplomacy at the University of Oxford, UK, and the Head of the Oxford Digital Diplomacy Research Group. His research focuses on the impact of digital technology on the conduct of diplomacy, with a special interest in public diplomacy, international negotiations, and methods for countering digital influence operations. His current research examines the emerging role of AI in diplomacy, with a particular focus on its capacity to support decision-making, refine negotiation approaches, and strengthen crisis response, while also addressing the ethical challenges posed by algorithmic bias in diplomatic communications.
His most recent publications include The Oxford Handbook of Digital Diplomacy (Oxford University Press, 2024, co-ed.), which provides a comprehensive overview of the theory, practice, and future of digital diplomacy across different regions and issues. Another recent volume, Digital International Relations: Technology, Agency, and Order (Routledge, 2023, co-ed.), explores how digital disruption impacts world order and global governance. Additionally, he has authored or edited several academic books on digital diplomacy, including the twin volumes Countering Online Propaganda and Violent Extremism: The Dark Side of Digital Diplomacy (2018) – listed by BookAuthority among the 20 Best New International Relations Books to Read in 2019 – and Digital Diplomacy: Theory and Practice (2015). His co-edited volume Digital Diplomacy and International Organizations: Autonomy, Legitimacy, and Contestation (Routledge, 2020) examines the broader ramifications of digital technologies on the internal dynamics, multilateral policies, and strategic engagements of international organizations.
He has conducted training sessions for the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Diplomatic Academies in U.K., European Union, Germany, Greece, Georgia, Spain, Israel, Lithuania, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Armenia, Honduras, Bahrain, Romania as well as for international organisations such as the UNITAR, the Digital Cooperation Organisation, United Nations System Staff College, the Commonwealth, the International Labour Organization, and the United Nations Population Fund.
Paul Timmers is professor at KU Leuven, focusing on geopolitics and technology. He authored studies on digital industrial policy, cybersecurity strategic autonomy, resilience/ security of telecoms and digital supply chains, AI governance. He is co-author of the recent EuroStack report on digital sovereignty for Europe. He is member of the advisory council of the Netherlands’ National Digitalisation Strategy.
Paul Timmers was Director at the European Commission responsible for legislation and funding for cybersecurity, e-ID, digital privacy, digital health, smart cities, and e-government. He was cabinet member of European Commissioner Liikanen. He is former research associate at the University of Oxford and Chair of the Supervisory Board of the Estonian eGovernance Academy.
Duncan Hollis is Laura H. Carnell Professor of Law at Temple Law School, Faculty Co-Director of Temple University’s Institute for Law, Innovation & Technology, and Co-Convenor of The Oxford Process on International Law Protections in Cyberspace. His scholarship engages with issues of international law, with a particular emphasis on treaties, norms, and other forms of international regulation. He is editor of the award-winning The Oxford Guide to Treaties as well as Defending Democracies: Combatting Foreign Election Interference in a Digital Age with Dean Jens Ohlin, plus a leading U.S. textbook, International Law with Professors Allen Weiner and Chimene Keitner. Professor Hollis is an elected Member of the American Law Institute, where he serves as an Adviser on its project to draft a Fourth Restatement on the Foreign Relations Law of the United States. From 2016-2020, he served as a member of the OAS’s Inter-American Juridical Committee, including as Rapporteur for a project on improving the transparency of State views on international law’s application to cyberspace.
Myriam Dunn Cavelty is Senior Scientist at the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich. Her work focuses on how digital technologies impact politics and society, and how governance systems for these technologies develop. Beyond teaching and research, she also advises governments, international organizations, and companies on topics like cybersecurity, cyber warfare, critical infrastructure, risk analysis, and future planning.