Inga Trauthig
Bio
Dr. Inga Trauthig is a research professor at the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy at Florida International University (FIU). She is a security studies scholar and received her Ph.D. from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London (KCL).
Dr. Trauthig’s research interests cover disinformation, hybrid warfare, terrorism/counterterrorism, and emerging technologies. She works to understand the societal impacts of emerging technologies–particularly regarding political competition, democratic backsliding, shifting power dynamics and related security implications.
She has authored over 80 publications. The majority of those are peer-reviewed while others are op-eds or shorter, policy-focused pieces such as “Chat and Encrypted Messaging Apps are the New Battlefields in the Propaganda War” for Lawfare. She has published in peer-reviewed journals like Conflict, Security & Development, Journal of Online Trust & Safety, New Media & Society, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, or Political Research Quarterly. Dr. Trauthig has co-edited a special journal issue on conspiracy theories for the Journal of Information Technology & Politics.
Dr. Trauthig lectured or presented at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Yale’s Law School. Her regional expertise is strongest on the Middle East, but she has also led research projects and authored publications on China, Germany, India, or Russia. For her Ph.D. specifically, she focused on non-state actors in the Middle East and North Africa region, particularly Libya.
Her work has received recognition by being nominated for the 2024 Research Excellence Career Award at the University of Texas at Austin. Her work has been supported by scientific institutions as well as societal funders, and she has received prizes from the Conflict Research Society or the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies.
She actively works to translate research insights into actionable policy advice. For example, when collaborating with governmental institutions or other bodies such as Europol, the United Nations Development Program, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United States Institute of Peace, or the Program on Democracy and the Internet at Stanford’s Cyber Policy Center. She also consults regularly with policy and security professionals and has given oral evidence in the U.K. Parliament.
Dr. Trauthig is a regular contributor to Tech Policy Press and the Center for International Governance Innovation. She has joined podcasts such as Just Security or BBC’s Digital Human and her comments have been featured by outlets like Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, CNN, Houston Chronicle, Foreign Policy, Tagesschau and The Washington Post.
Other affiliations include being an expert group member (for Terrorism and Domestic Security) with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Berlin or a fellowship with the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies at King's College London. Previous positions include Head of Research of the Propaganda Research Lab at the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin, adjunct faculty at KCL’s Department of Defence Studies, research fellow with KCL’s International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, or political consultant for corporate tech clients at Miller and Meier Consulting in Berlin.