Sarah Jacobs Gamberini is a Senior Policy Fellow at the National Defense University (NDU) Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction (CSWMD). Her research includes emerging technologies, arms control, influence operations, and information warfare activities with a focus on understanding the intersections of disinformation and WMD. In her recent report on Social Media Weaponization, Gamberini describes the methods and goals of Russia’s influence operations and assesses the implications for targeting matters of public health like COVID-19 and the vaccination debate. Gamberini coteaches the NDU Elective on WMD and Mass Media which provides a baseline understanding of WMD threats with an emphasis on media literacy in a post-truth world. Sarah Gamberini also chairs the monthly CSWMD Spotlight Speaker Series featuring thought leaders on a range of WMD topics.
Prior to joining CSWMD, Gamberini was a Senior Policy Analyst with SAIC where she supported various WMD and arms control offices in the Department of Defense including the Defense Science Board. Her portfolio included implementation of and compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention and New START and research on a range of emerging issues for the Air Force including international space norms and non-strategic nuclear weapons. Gamberini supported the Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (AT&L) Office of Treaty Compliance where she focused on landmines, cluster munitions, and lethal autonomous weapons systems. Prior to this she supported the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) on matters associated with the U.S.-Russia Cooperative Threat Reduction Program.
Gamberini holds a Master of Arts degree in International Relations and Contemporary War from King’s College London and a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies and Arabic from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As an active member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) Mid-Career Cadre and Next Generation Arms Control Negotiators, she is dedicated to cultivating the next generation of nuclear experts.
Publications:
- Gamberini, Sarah Jacobs, and Justin Anderson. “Russian and Other (Dis)Information Undermining WMD Arms Control: Considerations for NATO.” NATO Committee on Proliferation. Speech presented to the NATO Committee on Proliferation, July 12, 2022
- Gamberini, S.J. (2021). (Dis)trust and verify?: Arms Control in Today’s (Dis)Information Environment Part I. Inkstick.
- Gamberini, S.J. (2021). A Year of Working Intentionally: The Unexpected Benefits of Pandemic Telework as a Working Mom in the Defense World. Inkstick.
- Gamberini, S.J. & Rubin, L. (2021). Quantum Sensing's Potential Impacts on Strategic Deterrence and Modern Warfare. Orbis: Foreign Policy Research Institute Journal of World Affairs.
- Gamberini, S.J. (2020). Social Media Weaponization: The Biohazards of Russian Disinformation Campaigns. Joint Force Quarterly 99.
- Gamberini, S.J. & Anderson, J. (2020). Infodemic: Russian disinformation campaigns, public health, and COVID-19. Inkstick.
- Gamberini, S.J. & Moodie, A. (2020). The Virus of Disinformation: Echoes of Past Bioweapons Accusations in Today's COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories. War on the Rocks.
- Gamberini, S.J. & Moodie, A. (2020). Governing a Pandemic: China' s authoritarian approach to COVID-19 in the context of great power competition. Inkstick.
- Gamberini, S.J., (2014) Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons Arms Control: Key Challenges for the United States. In Project on Nuclear Issues: A Collection of Papers from the 2013 Conference Series. New York: Rowan & Littlefield.
- Gamberini, S.J., Anderson, J., & Conrad, W. (2014). International Space Negotiations, Emerging Space Powers, and U.S. Efforts to Protect the Military Use of Space. Space & Defense.
- Gamberini, S.J., Anderson, J., Vaughan, C. (2014). Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons and Future Arms Control Negotiations: Issues for the Air Force. Air Force Emerging Issues Study.
- Jacobs, S., Anderson, J., & Conrad, W. (2012). Arms Control in the Third Space Age: Assessing International Efforts to Regulate Military Operations in Outer Space in the “3 C's” Era. Space & Defense.
- Jacobs, S., Anderson, J., & Conrad, W. (2011). Air Force Space Equities & Future International Space Agreements. Air Force Emerging Issues Study.
- Jacobs, S. (2010). Long Term Stability in Yemen Begins with Fixing Education. Center for American Progress.
- Jacobs, S., & Werz, M. (2010). Eternal Minorities? Turkish Politics and the Challenge of Diversity. Center for American Progress.