Merle Maigre:

During my time at Stanford as a as a short-term visiting scholar at the Centre for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), I gave a public talk on 30 April 2026 titled Wartime Digital Resilience Lessons from Ukrainelooking at Estonia’s lessons based on or confirmed by what Ukraine has experienced during the full-scale invasion since 2022. It can be viewed here.

Besides that, I gave two guest lectures on the topics of ‘Estonia’s internet voting’ in February 2026 and ‘Energy Sector Cybersecurity’ in April 2026 to undergraduate and graduate students of the Stanford Economics Department as part of Professor Rimvydas Baltaduonis course Economics of Voting and  Energy Transition and Security. I also talked about e-Governance Academy’s cyber capacity building experience during Stanford Applied Cyber Club Lunch talk in March 2026, and discussed career choice options in cybersecurity over a lunch with graduate students of Professor Andrew Grotto’s ‘Fundamentals of Cyber Policy & Security’ course. Additionally, I met with students of Professor Amir Weiner’s course on Soviet History and shared personal memories of childhood in the Soviet Union.

One of the most rewarding part of the stay at Stanford was the option to audit courses such as the Social and Economic Impact of Artificial Intelligence by Jerry Kaplan Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur, AI expert, bestselling author, Trust & Safety of Social Platforms by Alex Stamos, the former Chief Security Officer for both Facebook and Yahoo, and AI, Autonomy and the Future of Warfare by Colonel Bradley Boyd and Nand Munchaldani, chief technology officer (CTO) at the Central Intelligence Agency and the CTO and acting director of the US Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center.

I was able to participate at the RSA 2026 Conference in San Franciso, the world’s largest and most influential annual gathering for the global cybersecurity industry; to attend the Frontline Futures Forum on Ukraine’s defence innovation in Menlo Park, as well as to visit the headquarters of Zoox, an autonomous vehicle and ride-hailing company Amazon.

Above all, the fellowship offered inspirational opportunities to (re)connect with various members of Stanford’s dynamic intellectual community including professors Michael McFaul, Philip Gordon, Andrew Grotto, Steven Pifer, and Herbert Lin, and Gabrielius Landsbergis. I attended public lectures, book presentations, concerts, networked extensively, and tightened Estonia’s links with Standord, and will continue to do so also in the future through Vabamu and e-Governance Academy.