Justin Canfil

Justin Key Canfil is a postdoctoral fellow with the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School. In Fall 2023, he will be an Assistant Professor of Emerging Technologies and International Relations at Carnegie Mellon University and a Postdoctoral Research Associate (with the Peking-Princeton Postdoctoral Program). Dr. Canfil's research uses experimental, computational, and mixed-methods techniques to better understand the international law and politics of emerging technologies. He is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to conduct doctoral research in China and a PhD in political science from Columbia University.

Academic Publications

Justin K. Canfil. “The Illogic of Plausible Deniability: Why Proxy Conflict in Cyberspace May No Longer Pay,” Journal of Cybersecurity (JOC), Vol. 8 No. 1, 2022.

Justin K. Canfil and Elsa Kania. “Mapping State Participation in Military AI Governance Discussions,” Oxford Handbook of AI Governance, Justin Bullock, Yu-Che Chen, Valerie Hudson, Anton Korinek, Matthew Young, Baobao Zhang (eds.), Oxford University Press (2022).

Justin K. Canfil. “International Legal Statecraft,” A War of Our Time: The Threat and Dynamics of Non-Military Warfare, Angstrom, Jonsson, Christianson, Kaihko (eds.), Georgetown University Press (2022, forthcoming).

Justin K. Canfil. “Innovation & Organizational Politics in the United States Air Force, Contemporary Military Strategy,” Fowler & McCaskey, eds., Georgetown University Press, 2018.

Justin K. Canfil. “Honing Cyber Attribution: a Framework for Assessing Foreign State Complicity,” International Affairs (JIA), Vol. 70 No. 1 p. 217-226, January 2017.


Policy Publications

“Technology Governance” (contributing author), US-China Futures Briefing Book, Schmidt Futures, March 2021.

“Trump’s Nuclear Test Would Risk Everything to Gain Nothing,” War on the Rocks, Jul 8 2020.

“Tear Gas is a ‘Weapon of War.’ Why is it Being Used to Quell Protests?” Lawfare, Jun 19 2020.

“The U.S. Will Exit The ‘Open Skies’ Treaty and It’s Unclear Why.” Lawfare, June 3 2020.

“50 Years After Apollo 11, China Is on Deck to Land Next. That Doesn’t Have to Be a Bad Thing,” The Diplomat, July 19 2019.

“Lessons on History and Statecraft,” with Lauren Dickey et al. War on the Rocks, August 9 2016.

Personal Website: www.jcanfil.com