Ms. Khatuna Mshvidobadze, MBA, is an Associate Academic Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. Ms. Mshvidobadze is affiliated with the Potomac Institute Cyber Center. She is also a Senior Associate at the Georgian Security Analysis Center, Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, Tbilisi, Georgia.  Since January 2009, she has been an Advisor to the Office of the Minister of Defense of Georgia.  Ms. Mshvidobadze is a member of the Academy of Political Science of Georgia. 

Prior to her current positions, Ms. Mshvidobadze was Deputy Director of the Information Centre on NATO, a public diplomacy effort to familiarize the people of Georgia with Georgia’s decision to set itself on the path toward alliance membership, and the obligations the country must undertake to join.  She was the main contact with NATO country embassies.  Ms. Mshvidobadze attended meetings at NATO Headquarters and conferences throughout Europe.

Ms. Mshvidobadze has published extensively in Georgian and English.  Her articles in English have appeared in Defense News, Florida Times Union, Investor.ge, Jane’s Defence Weekly, Jane’s Foreign Report, Jerusalem Post, JINSA Global Briefing and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Some recent articles on cyber security include:
•    “The Battlefield On Your Laptop,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, March 21, 2011.
•    “Is Russia on the Wrong Side of the Net?” Jane’s Defence Weekly, March 2, 2011.

Her book chapter for the Georgian Academy of Political Science, “Russia: Cyber Crime, Cyber War, Cyber Capabilities,” will be published this year in Georgian, English and Russian. 

Her presentation “New Threats: Energy Security, Cyber Defense, Critical Infrastructure Protection,” at the Conference on NATO and the New Strategic Concept in Bucharest is listed as a source in the official bibliography of the new NATO strategic concept.  More recently, she presented, “Russia, Georgia and the Shape of Cyber Wars to Come” at the May 16, 2011 SMi/Cyber Security Forum Initiative conference on Cyber Defence in Istanbul, Turkey and, “Cyber Terrorism: Georgian Experience and the Future Threat” at the July 8, 2011 NATO conference on Emerging Security Challenges in Tbilisi.

As a member of the Cyber Security Forum Initiative, she recently co-authored a training course, “Russian Cyber Capabilities, Policy and Practice.”
Selected as a Rumsfeld Fellow for the Autumn of 2011, Ms. Mshvidobadze is participating in an engagement program with fellows from eight countries at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC. Her research project is “Super Power and Mini Power: Differing Cyber Security Perceptions and Policies in the USA and Georgia.”

Ms. Mshvidobadze holds a Bachelor’s degree in English from Tbilisi State University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Caucasus School of Business. She is now a PhD candidate in political science at the Georgian Technical University.  Her dissertation is on policy aspects of global information and cyber security.