Zviad Adzinbaia

Doctoral Fellow, Information Advantage & Digital Diplomacy

Zviad Adzinbaia is a scholar and practitioner specializing in international security, information strategy, technology, and geopolitics. A Ph.D. Fellow in the International Security Studies Program at the Fletcher School, his doctoral research investigates how frontline democracies strengthen adaptive resilience and institutional learning to navigate information warfare and technological disruption. His analysis has appeared in leading publications, global media, and international policy forums.

Zviad serves as Vice President for Policy and Technology at HarrisX, a Washington, D.C.–based research, analytics, and strategy firm known for its work at the intersection of data, policy, and technology. His portfolio spans artificial intelligence, diplomacy, elections, and information advantage, where he leads cutting-edge research and large-scale analytical initiatives shaping wider discussions on digital governance and strategic competition.

He is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of LEADx, a leadership accelerator and summit organized in partnership with Fletcher’s International Security Studies Program and the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). Since 2019, LEADx has engaged more than 2,000 professionals from 20 countries across Europe and Eurasia, strengthening dialogue on transatlantic cooperation, good governance, and digital transformation. The accelerator has also trained hundreds of mid-career leaders from over 15 countries across the wider Black Sea region and Europe in diplomacy, strategy, crisis management, and technology through immersive simulations, executive education, and professional networks.

In 2024, Zviad was selected as a Fellow of the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), an initiative founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt to shape the future of technology and national competitiveness. His guiding thesis is that the next wave of democratic renewal may well be inspired—and powered—by the rapid rise of artificial intelligence. Earlier in his research, he introduced and launched the concept of Temocracy—tech-enabled democracy—at an academic symposium at Georgetown University in 2019, exploring how emerging technologies can strengthen trust and institutional resilience in democratic societies.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Zviad has made multiple visits to Ukraine, collaborating with the Ministry of Digital Transformation in Kyiv—one of the world’s foremost digital governance institutions—as well as leading defense-technology, media, and policy organizations in the country. In the early days of the war, he also founded the Digital Diplomacy Task Force, a volunteer multinational team created to help Ukraine defend truth in the digital space. Working with global technology and policy partners, the team applied trust-and-safety principles and international law to push back against Russia’s wartime propaganda, combining open-source analysis with coordinated digital diplomacy efforts.

He is the architect of the Forward Information System (FIS)—an applied model that integrates early warning, predictive analytics, and impact evaluation to help democratic states gain information advantage over threat actors. He has presented the FIS in more than 15 countries across Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific. The model has been applied in national security settings and election campaigns, helping institutions, leaders, and civic movements anticipate information threats, coordinate more effectively, and sustain technology-enabled advantage in moments of both crisis and stability. In 2019, Forbes Georgia recognized him in its inaugural 30 Under 30 list.

In 2020, Zviad led a civic campaign urging TikTok to correct its mislabeling of Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region—Georgian territories occupied by Russia—that the platform had listed among independent countries. The campaign drew nationwide digital and media attention, prompting engagement from Georgia’s Foreign Ministry and intervention by the Chinese Ambassador. TikTok subsequently revised its regional settings to align with international law, becoming a constructive example of digital diplomacy and corporate accountability in conflict-affected contexts.

Zviad’s career includes roles at the European Parliament, the NATO Defense College (NDC) in Rome, and leading global advisory firms and media outlets. At NDC, he authored a widely cited report on strengthening the Alliance’s Black Sea strategy within the broader context of U.S. and European strategic competition with Russia and its allies. In 2021, he directed the Eastern European Digital Institute, a regional program on civic leadership and nonviolent movements, in partnership with the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.

Zviad is a Sarah Scaife and Lynde & Harry Bradley Doctoral Scholar at the Fletcher School and a 2021–2022 Fulbright Senior Scholar, during which he collaborated with Microsoft’s Democracy Forward Initiative to advance innovative approaches to information integrity and technology-enabled democracy. Building on this work, he now leads Fletcher’s inaugural Tools and Weapons Symposium under the International Security Studies Program—a series of applied exercises and discussions designed to train graduate students to navigate complex information, technology, and threat environments. He holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School and a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from Sokhumi State University in Tbilisi.

Zviad took his first job at 14, selling fish in a western Georgian bazaar, where he would often impersonate Louis Armstrong to draw customers—doing his English homework on frozen chicken boxes between sales. That early mix of grit, curiosity, and melody later inspired him to found Gali Jazz, an art diplomacy initiative that builds bridges through the language of music and celebrates human freedom. He dreams of hosting a major international jazz festival in his hometown of Gali, Abkhazia, when Georgia is whole again—a vision that weaves memory, art, and hope into a lasting harmony of just and enduring peace.

Selected Publications and Media Citations

Zviad’s commentary and analysis reflect a blend of academic rigor and policy relevance. His work has appeared in the NATO Defense College (NDC), The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, Diplomatic Courier, The Atlantic Council’s Ukraine Alert, and the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). His perspectives have also been featured or cited by CNN, BBC News, The Boston Globe, and other leading international media outlets, as well as by NATO’s StratCom, Hybrid and Maritime Centres of Excellence. Selected writings and frameworks from his research have been incorporated into university curricula and executive training programs on international security, diplomacy, information operations, and digital governance.