Alina Polyakova
Director, Project on Global Democracy and Emerging Technology
Fellow - Foreign Policy, Center on the United States and Europe
Alina Polyakova is the founding director of the Project on Global Democracy and Emerging Technology and a fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, where she leads the Foreign Policy program’s Democracy Working Group. Polyakova was part of the inaugural class of David M. Rubenstein fellows at Brookings. She is also adjunct professor of European studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. Her work examines Russian political warfare, European populism, digital authoritarianism, and the implications of emerging technologies to democracies. Polyakova's book, "The Dark Side of European Integration" (ibidem-Verlag and Columbia University Press, 2015) analyzed the rise of far-right political parties in Europe. She is a frequent contributor to The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, and commentator in major media outlets including Fox News, CNN, BBC, and Bloomberg, among others.
Previously, she served as director of research and senior fellow for Europe and Eurasia at the Atlantic Council, professor of sociology at the University of Bern, and Fulbright Fellow. She serves on the board of the Free Russia Foundation and has held numerous fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the National Science Foundation, and the Swiss National Science Foundation, among others.
Polyakova holds a master’s and doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor's in economics and sociology with highest honors from Emory University.
Affiliations:
Council on Foreign Relations, term member
DisinfoPortal, co-founder
Free Russia Foundation, board member
Johns Hopkins University, SAIS, adjunct professor
Lawfare Blog, contributor
Alina Polyakova is the founding director of the Project on Global Democracy and Emerging Technology and a fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, where she leads the Foreign Policy program’s Democracy Working Group. Polyakova was part of the inaugural class of David M. Rubenstein fellows at Brookings. She is also adjunct professor of European studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. Her work examines Russian political warfare, European populism, digital authoritarianism, and the implications of emerging technologies to democracies. Polyakova’s book, “The Dark Side of European Integration” (ibidem-Verlag and Columbia University Press, 2015) analyzed the rise of far-right political parties in Europe. She is a frequent contributor to The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, and commentator in major media outlets including Fox News, CNN, BBC, and Bloomberg, among others.
Previously, she served as director of research and senior fellow for Europe and Eurasia at the Atlantic Council, professor of sociology at the University of Bern, and Fulbright Fellow. She serves on the board of the Free Russia Foundation and has held numerous fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the National Science Foundation, and the Swiss National Science Foundation, among others.
Polyakova holds a master’s and doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor’s in economics and sociology with highest honors from Emory University.
Affiliations:
Council on Foreign Relations, term member
DisinfoPortal, co-founder
Free Russia Foundation, board member
Johns Hopkins University, SAIS, adjunct professor
Lawfare Blog, contributor
Since 2014, Russia has only stepped up its repressive behavior at home and aggressive actions abroad. The decision to allow Russia back into the Council [of Europe] sends the message that this behavior is acceptable. It’s a dangerous precedent for others.
The decision [by the the Council of Europe to reinstate Russia's voting rights] sends the message that it's back to business as usual with Russia, even though Moscow hasn't done anything to change its aggressive behavior...The idea is that it's better to have Russia in the Council because it gives some leverage. But this is a false assumption given that Russia invaded Ukraine and committed numerous human rights offenses before that, while it was a member.
To what degree the Jigsaw experiment [of buying a social media disinformation campaign] really exposed that practice deserves scrutiny...[I] support the idea of the research in theory, but Jigsaw never published its results—and still hasn't, even now...I don’t think policymakers or your average citizen gets how dangerous this is, that the cost of entry is so low...As an experiment, I don't think this is a problem. What I do think is a problem is not actually publicizing it.