Hello and welcome to the Wonk Security Blog! I’m Cody Wilson, a U.S. national security policy and international relations expert. And no, I am definitely not that Cody Wilson (not the one with the 3D printed guns, the MLB player, nor the BMX rider). I’ve been studying political science, international relations, and violent non-state actors for about a decade now, and I created this site to allow me share some of my knowledge with a wider audience.
What you can expect
While the focus of this blog will be on sharing my knowledge and expertise on a wide variety of national and international security issues, it will not be the only thing I discuss. I love to learn, and part of loving to learn means learning about and reading about a lot of things. To that end, some of what you’ll find on this blog will certainly include discussion on my main areas of expertise – foreign policy and national security policy. This might include my thoughts on world events or maybe the latest research paper that I come across. It will also focus on another growing interest area for me: information operations. But that’s not all.
You will also see material about cybersecurity for two reasons: 1) cybersecurity is becomes inextricably more bound up with national security issues and 2) I am currently in the process of studying for my Security+ certification. In addition, I will be sharing my interest in Open Source Intelligence (OSINT). Many in the OSINT community love to teach others, which is how I’ve primarily learned, and I plan on sharing some of what I’ve learned over the years. You can also expect a bit of scientific material, mainly sharing and being generally excited about the findings of others, and a decent amount of data analytics/machine learning material.
As I’ve discovered in recent years, a strong technical background is increasingly necessary to understanding the ways that malign actors exploit emerging technologies. To that end, I like digging into technological subjects not only because they broaden my overall quantitative and technical skillset but also because that knowledge comes in handy for assessing new threats on the horizon.
Most importantly, I hope you enjoy
Regardless of what content I am posting here, I hope you enjoy or at least learn something from it. I am very excited to have a place to share some of my interests and my knowledge. So, again, welcome to the Wonk Security Blog! Feel free to reach out in the comments or on my contact page. Also, you can find of my more in-depth research on my research page here.