Motive International’s Baltic Technology Security Initiative
Motive International, a U.S. social enterprise with a mission to mitigate global conflict and instability, is pleased to be implementing “The Innovators Next Door” Project funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) Program in collaboration with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia and the Republic of Lithuania, and industry partners in Estonia. The Project’s goal is to reduce the threat of malign actors diverting technology from the Baltic region’s vibrant high-tech sector. The Project involves extensive coordination with industry, academia, civil society, and government, culminating in live tabletop exercise (TTX) and workshop events designed to strengthen policy, practice, and cross-sector networks.
Exercise Events
Read the article we published with findings from our first two Innovators Next Door events.
Innovators Next Door events simulate technology diversion threats through scenario-based game-play while challenging industry and government participants to solve problems and develop actionable, real-world policy, practice, or coordination recommendations. The recommendations event attendees have developed at past events have already led to policy and practice changes across the Baltic region.
Our project event schedule:
Vilnius - October 2022
Riga - October 2022
Tallinn - May 2023
Key Stakeholder Recommendations
Innovators Next Door’s distinguished participating stakeholder organizations include:
Threat Mitigation Resources
Optimizing Impact
Project goals include measurably reducing technology diversion through increases in threat awareness, mitigation best practices, policy effectiveness, and strength of cross-sector relationships. Motive measures results through rigorous qualitative and quantitative methods and maintains a commitment to transparency and continual learning. A few indicators of Project results to date include:
400+ industry, academic, and civil society organizations have been engaged, with a majority of those surveyed reporting significant increases in knowledge about technology diversion threats and mitigation tools as a result of the Project.
12+ ministries and departments of participating governments have attended Innovators Next Door events, with many officials resolved to strengthen national policies based on Project learning and recommendations.
Leading Baltic law firm Sorainen has served as the Project’s exclusive regional legal expert, providing advice and serving as a vital bridge between practitioners and regulators that are uniquely impacted by technology diversion risks.
Participating experts at Project events have included representatives from NATO, the European Defense Fund, FedTech, the Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Spin TEK developers of Stratlink, and the West Point Robotics Center.
Connect & Contribute
We invite all those interested in taking action to counter the threat of technology diversion to provide input, ask questions, and stay informed about Project developments; you can contact our team using the form below.
The Innovators Next Door Project Team
MORGAN KEAY
CEO/FOUNDER AND PROJECT TTX DESIGNER
Morgan Keay is the CEO/Founder of Motive International, a Washington, DC-based social enterprise with a mission to mitigate global conflict and instability. With Motive, Morgan leads a global team and portfolio addressing technology security, atrocity prevention, security cooperation, and health systems strengthening through trade, Prior to launching Motive, she served in the U.S. federal government as a Policy Officer with the U.S. State Department, a Foreign Service Officer with U.S. Agency for International Development, and a senior advisor within the Department of Defense. A true cross-sector practitioner, Morgan previously founded a sustainable development NGO in Mongolia, where she lived for ten years, and served as a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) consultant for a Fortune 100 firm. She holds a master’s in International Policy from The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, and bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Biology and Religious Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder
ANDREW GRISWOLD HYDE
POLICY ENGAGEMENT LEAD
Andrew Hyde served 28 years as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer. He served as the interim NATO Deputy Senior Civilian Representative in Kabul where he helped lead Alliance diplomatic efforts in support of NATO’s Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan. Previously, in the Department’s International Organizations Bureau, he led a team that developed a strategy for sustainable U.S. financing to the UN, particularly Peacekeeping, and provided a regional focus to U.S. multilateral engagement. Prior to that, he was Deputy Director in the State Department’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations in charge of developing international and nongovernmental partnerships aimed at enhancing collaboration on fragile and conflict-affected countries and regions.
Andrew has a Master’s degree in National Resource Strategy from the Dwight Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy (National Defense University), and a BA in International Relations, Economics and Political Science from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. He also has done graduate studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the London School of Economics.
JARED COCHRANE
PROJECT TECHNOLOGIST
Jared Cochrane serves as the Project Technologist on our team. Jared is a recipient of the prestigious Lincoln Labs Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned a Master of Science in Technology & Policy. At MIT’s Research Lab of Electronics (RLE) and elsewhere, Jared has conducted research on quantum theory, optical systems, and induced photon entanglement. A thought leader at the nexus of technology, security, and ethics, Jared has published in the fields of theoretical physics, applied optics, machine vision, and military AI policy. His technical research at MIT includes work on applied military ethics that have culminated in papers and policy memos related to Just War theory and the moral and practical implications of lethal autonomous weapons. He is currently working on simulation techniques that benchmark the performance of optically enabled neural network accelerators on real-life machine vision tasks relevant to commercial-to-military dual use technology. In addition to his MS from MIT, Jared holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
MELISSA VANDERBURG
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS AND PROJECT TTX PRODUCER
Melissa Vanderburg is Motive’s Director of Operations and the Project’s TTX Producer. With Motive, Melissa manages a program portfolio spanning three continents with work related to technology security, atrocity prevention, civil-military affairs, and global conflict mitigation. She also oversees Motive’s business processes related to knowledge management, communications, impact analysis, and security. A former U.S. official with interagency experience in information related capabilities, cyber security, and exercises, she has contributed to the design and production of exercises and events for stakeholders including the U.S. Departments of State and Defense, and U.S. municipal clients including the cities of Savannah, Georgia and San Diego, California. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and Intelligence Studies from the University of Maryland and is a graduate of the Defense Language Institute. She is also a U.S. Marine Corps veteran with combat service in Iraq as an Arabic linguist.
GEOFF ODLUM
TECHNOLOGY SECURITY LEAD
Geoff Odlum is a subject matter expert with Motive International specializing in global governance and national security, often related to emerging and disruptive technologies. A retired diplomat, Geoff served with the State Department for 28 years before joining Motive in 2018. His assignments included postings at U.S. embassies across Europe and Asia, and in Washington, DC focused on nonproliferation and arms control policy. In addition to his current work with Motive, Geoff is a consultant on technology and security for the U.S. Department of Defense-funded technology accelerator, FedTech, which prepares dual use technology startups to do business with the U.S. Government. He is a graduate of Georgetown Univ. School of Foreign Service and the National Defense University’s National War College master’s degree program in national security studies.
DR. SALAMAH MAGNUSON
MONITORING EVALUATION AND LEARNING LEAD
Salamah Magnuson is a conflict, stabilization, and governance expert with over two decades of experience implementing and measuring the impacts of peace and security programs and policies. A practitioner-academic, she has decades of applied work across Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, and the Baltics. Salamah concurrently serves as a Sr. Advisor on conflict and security-related issues within the U.S. Dept. of State and with Motive as an expert in disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR), counter-hybrid warfare, countering violent extremism (CVE), and monitoring and evaluation. She earned her doctorate from the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Conflict Management, with extensive doctoral field research examining how non-state armed groups forge governance relationships with populations.