Navigating a New Era in National Security and Regulation

Emily Benson is director of Project on Trade and Technology, and senior fellow of Scholl Chair in International Business at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where she focuses on trade, investment, and technology issues primarily in the transatlantic context. Prior to joining CSIS, she managed transatlantic legislative relations at a European foundation, focusing on trade relations and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. She also worked to combat money laundering via the illicit flow of art from conflict zones and spent several years at an international law firm focused on sanctions and export controls. During graduate school, Emily spent a summer in the trade section at the EU Delegation to the United States, working on digital regulation and trade remedies. Her commentary and research have appeared in publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, and Politico, and she is regularly quoted in domestic and international news outlets. She received her joint BA in international affairs and political science from the University of Colorado and her MA in political science from the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Fluent in French, Emily has lived abroad in France, Indonesia, and Switzerland.

Eric Choy serves as the Executive Director for Trade Remedy and Law Enforcement in the Office of Trade at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, where he is responsible for threat assessment units, special investigations and enforcement programs focused on detecting, deterring, and disrupting illicit trade, with special emphasis on forced labor violations, evasion of special tariff cases, and civil penalties.

Previously, Eric served as the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Trade at the Department of Homeland Security responsible for policies and initiatives that enable the flow of legitimate trade, services, capital, and technology across our Nation’s borders to protect the economy and assure a fair, competitive, and safe trade environment.

Eric joined the Department of Homeland Security in 2016, where he led the Chemical Sector Specific Agency in the National Protection and Programs Directorate. In this role, he oversaw the engagement with regulatory stakeholders and industry partners as part of the national effort to strengthen the security and resilience of the nation’s Chemical industry.

Prior to his arrival at the Department, he served 23 years in the United States Army in numerous field and joint duty assignments in and outside of the Pentagon and around the world in Southwest Asia, Asia-Pacific, and North America.

He received his Master of Arts from the United States Naval War College in Newport, R.I., and Master of Business Administration from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

John Foote is a partner and head of the customs practice at Kelley Drye & Warren LLP. He is a recognized authority on the use of trade laws to combat forced labor in global supply chains. He publishes at www.forcedlabortrade.substack.com.

Steve Lyons is a senior advisor for WestExec, a strategic advisory firm offering unique geopolitical and policy expertise to help business leaders operate in a complex and volatile landscape.

During a visit to the Port of Los Angeles in June 2022 the President of the United States announced the appointment of General Steve Lyons as Special Envoy for Ports and Supply Chains. As an integral part of the White House Supply Chain Disruption Task Force, he worked across a broad spectrum of industry, labor, academic, and government stakeholders to mitigate pandemic induced bottlenecks that were adversely impacting inflationary pressure and consumer confidence. During his tenure he played a central advisory role in resolving railroad, parcel freight, and longshore labor contracts. He also led a government interagency Unified Coordination Group (UCG) focused on domestic crisis response.

Prior to his role as special envoy, he retired from the US Army after 38 years of active service culminating as the 13th commander of US Transportation Command (TRANSCOM). TRANSCOM is one of 11 Presidentially appointed and Senate confirmed combatant commands in the Department of Defense. TRANSCOM is responsible for operating the multibillion-dollar defense transportation system, routinely deploying and sustaining military forces, providing aerial refueling, medical aerial evacuation, and humanitarian assistance to support US national security goals around the globe. In 2021 he led the mobility operation that enabled the historic evacuation of over 124,000 Afghans and other non-combatants from Kabul international airport.

He began his career in Germany during the Cold War and subsequently held a wide range of assignments to include command of troops at every level, multiple combat deployments, and over eight years of experience in joint (multi-service) assignments. As a battalion commander in 2003, he led more than 1,200 Soldiers as part of the 3d Infantry Division ground assault to liberate Baghdad. He subsequently spent more than 40 months deployed to the US Central command area of responsibility in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan.

A native of Rensselaer New York, General Lyons graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the US Army in 1983. He holds two master’s degrees, one from the Naval Postgraduate School in supply chain management; and the second from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in national resource strategy. His awards include the defense distinguished service medal, the master parachutist badge, and numerous leadership awards. He has been recognized in the Congressional Record and inducted into the Hall of Fame at the 82d Airborne Division, Naval Postgraduate School, U.S. Army Materiel Command, and U.S. Army Ordnance Corps.

Chris Miller is Associate Professor of International History at Tufts University, Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, where his research focuses on technology, geopolitics, economics, international affairs, and Russia.

He is author of Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology, a geopolitical history of the computer chip.

He is the author of three other books on Russia, including Putinomics: Power and Money in Resurgent Russia; We Shall Be Masters: Russia’s Pivots to East Asia from Peter the Great to Putin; and The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy: Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of the USSR. He received his PhD and MA from Yale University and his BA in history from Harvard University.