Dr. Emily O. Goldman brings together decades of hands-on national security experience and rigorous policy scholarship, with a career spanning the NSA, U.S. Cyber Command, the National Security Council, and the State Department.
Most recently serving as Cyber Strategist at NSA and Director for Cyber Strategy and Policy at the White House NSC, Emily has worked at the intersection of strategy and operations across U.S. national security institutions for over a decade.
At U.S. Cyber Command, she contributed to foundational strategy documents including Achieve and Maintain Cyberspace Superiority and Beyond the Build, helping articulate how the U.S. approaches competition in cyberspace. She was part of the team that developed the “persistent engagement” and “defend forward” concepts that have since become doctrine, and led the FVEY Operational Insights Dialogue to advance allied campaigning.
As Cyber Advisor to the State Department’s Director of Policy Planning, she advised senior officials on the role of cyberspace in great power competition and contributed to efforts to establish norms of responsible state behavior in cyberspace. Earlier in her career, she helped launch the Point of Partnership program in Silicon Valley, a precursor to what became the Defense Innovation Unit, reflecting a longstanding interest in connecting government with the broader technology ecosystem.
Emily is increasingly focused on the strategic implications of AI for national security. With data scientist Robert L. Grossman, she co-authored “The Importance of Analytic Superiority in a World of Big Data and AI” (Cyber Defense Review, 2024) and the forthcoming “From Data to Victory: The Role of Analytic Superiority in Warfare” (Joint Force Quarterly), exploring how AI and large-scale data analysis are reshaping military advantage and decision-making. This work reflects her interest in translating technical developments into policy-relevant frameworks for operators and senior leaders.
She is also co-author of Cyber Persistence Theory (Oxford University Press, 2022), a framework for understanding how states compete in and through cyberspace, and writes regularly for Lawfare. She speaks to military, diplomatic, academic, and industry audiences on cyber strategy, policy, and operations.
