Professional Affiliation

Former Career CIA officer and Federal prosecutor

Expert Bio

H. Bryan Cunningham is an expert on the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC), national security, cybersecurity, and intelligence. Cunningham served as Deputy Legal Adviser to the National Security Council under Condoleezza Rice and was a career CIA officer and US federal prosecutor. 

Former White House lawyer Cunningham served under Presidents Reagan, Clinton and George W. Bush and drafted significant portions of the Homeland Security Act and related legislation, helping to shepherd them through Congress, worked closely with the 9/11 Commission, and provided legal advice to Presidents, National Security Advisors, the National Security Council, and other senior government officials on intelligence, terrorism, cybersecurity and related matters. 

Cunningham also is the principal author of legal and ethics chapters in authoritative cybersecurity textbooks and founded and served as Executive Director of the University of California, Irvine’s Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute. He was founding vice-chair of the American Bar Association Cyber Security Privacy Task Force and was awarded the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement. Cunningham served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Biodefense Analysis, the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, and the Bipartisan Policy Center Cybersecurity Task Force. 

In the private sector, Cunningham has served as General Counsel and a senior executive at multiple security-related start-ups and has provided legal advice and guidance to Fortune 500 companies and NGOs. 

Expertise

 

• Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC)
• National security
• Homeland security
• Cybersecurity
• Intelligence

Wilson Center Project

Deterring 21^st Century War Crimes Project: Reconsidering the Laws of Armed Conflict