Dinner with R. David Edelman

Yale-in-Washington is pleased to present:

Dinner with R. David Edelman '07, Director for International Cyber Policy at the National Security Council.

R. David Edelman currently serves as Director for International Cyber Policy at the National Security Council, The White House. In this role, he serves as a foreign policy advisor to Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard A. Schmidt, and manager of the Cyber Directorate’s international portfolio. Dubbed the nation’s “chief cyber diplomat,” he was the architect of President Obama’s International Strategy for Cyberspace released in May, 2011, and is reputedly the youngest Director in NSC history.

Prior to this assignment, he served as Policy Advisor in the State Department’s Office of Cyber Affairs within the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR). There he was responsible for developing U.S. diplomatic strategy in cyberspace, international legal doctrine, bilateral/multilateral engagement with East Asia on cyber issues, and speeches for Secretary Clinton and Deputy Secretary Steinberg. For the Fall of 2010, he served as chief U.S. negotiator on Internet issues at the United Nations.

He has previously served as a foreign affairs analyst specializing in Northeast Asia, and prior to joining State worked at the Brookings Institution, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security.

At Yale he majored in History, directed the Yale Ex!t Players improvisational comedy group, reviewed restaurants for the Yale Herald, and founded the Yale-in-Washington program. He holds M.Phil in International relations from Oxford, and is currently completing his doctoral dissertation, also at Oxford, focusing on cyberattacks within international law and security.