Andrew Imbrie

Georgetown Affiliate

Andrew Imbrie is an Associate Professor of the Practice in the Gracias Chair in Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Prior to his current role, he served as a senior advisor on cyber and emerging technology policy to the U.S. Ambassador and Deputy Ambassador at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. He worked previously as a Senior Fellow at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), where he focused on issues at the intersection of artificial intelligence and international security and served as an advisor to the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. From 2013 to 2017, he served as a member of the policy planning staff and speechwriter to Secretary John Kerry at the U.S. Department of State. He has also worked as a professional staff member on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 

His writings have appeared in such outlets as Foreign AffairsWar on the RocksSurvivalDefense One, and On Being. His first book is Power on the Precipice: The Six Choices America Faces in a Turbulent World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020). His second book, co-authored with Ben Buchanan, is The New Fire: War, Peace, and Democracy in the Age of AI (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2022). He received his B.A. in the humanities from Connecticut College and his M.A. from the Walsh School of Foreign Service. He holds a Ph.D. in international relations from Georgetown. A former member of the Digital Freedom Forum and 2018 class of the Shawn Brimley Next Generation National Security Leaders Fellowship at the Center for a New American Security, Andrew grew up as the son of a U.S. Foreign Service officer and has traveled to more than 60 countries.

CSET's Anna Puglisi and Andrew Imbrie discuss actions democracies can take to shape the development of biotechnology.

Privacy is Power

January 2022

In an opinion piece for Foreign Affairs, a team of CSET authors alongside coauthors make the case for the use of privacy-enhancing technologies to protect personal privacy.

Chinese and Russian government officials are keen to publicize their countries’ strategic partnership in emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence. This report evaluates the scope of cooperation between China and Russia as well as relative trends over time in two key metrics of AI development: research publications and investment. The findings expose gaps between aspirations and reality, bringing greater accuracy and nuance to current assessments of Sino-Russian tech cooperation.

The narrative of an artificial intelligence “arms race” among the great powers has become shorthand to describe evolving dynamics in the field. Narratives about AI matter because they reflect and shape public perceptions of the technology. In this issue brief, the second in a series examining rhetorical frames in AI, the authors compare four narrative frames that are prominent in public discourse: AI Competition, Killer Robots, Economic Gold Rush and World Without Work.

Collaborating with allies to shape the trajectory of artificial intelligence and protect against digital authoritarianism

Are great powers engaged in an artificial intelligence arms race? This issue brief explores the rhetorical framing of AI by analyzing more than 4,000 English-language articles over a seven-year period. Among its findings: a growing number of articles frame AI development as a competition, but articles using the competition frame represent a declining proportion of articles about AI.

The United States and its allies must develop targeted and coordinated policies to respond to unwanted Chinese technology transfer—gathering more data, raising awareness of tech transfer, and coordinating investment screening procedures as part of a broader agenda of technology alliance cooperation.

Agile Alliances

February 2020

The United States must collaborate with its allies and partners to shape the trajectory of artificial intelligence, promoting liberal democratic values and protecting against efforts to wield AI for authoritarian ends.

"As American strategy reorients toward strategic competition, critical considerations of surety, security and reliability around AI/ML applications should not be cast aside," write Andrew Imbrie and Elsa Kania.

How do we measure leadership in artificial intelligence, and where does the United States rank? This policy brief examines potential AI strengths of the United States and China and prescribes recommendations to ensure the United States remains ahead.

Among great powers, AI has become a new focus of competition due to its potential to transform the character of conflict and disrupt the military balance. This policy brief considers alternative paths toward AI safety and security.

The adoption of artificial intelligence will transform the global economy and international politics. Andrew Imbrie explores the different ways AI may develop in the future and how governance structures will need to adapt accordingly.

Andrew Imbrie, Senior Fellow at CSET writes that “the integration of new technologies depends on something more fundamental: bureaucratic politics.” He looks at the ways in which bureaucratic politics will impact the U.S.’s adoption of AI, and what the challenges and enablers of adoptions of AI implementation may look like in China.