Kevin Klyman
Technology Policy Strategist
What I Do
I am a policy researcher and a data scientist who advocates for responsible uses of technology to reduce poverty and advance peace. I am currently a researcher with the Avoiding Great Power War project at Harvard's Kennedy School, where I publish research on how technology can help prevent war between the United States and China. ​My freelance writing has been published by Foreign Policy, Just Security, The American Prospect, The National Interest, South China Morning Post, The Diplomat, TechCrunch, Inkstick, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Publications
Resume
Europe Joins Washington's Campaign to Contain China (2023) — an essay on EU tech policy towards China in Just Security
Intel is reeling. Why should the government save it? (2023) — an op-ed in The National Interest on implementation of the CHIPS Act
The US Wants to Make Sure China Can't Catch Up on Quantum Computing (2023) — an essay in Foreign Policy
Making #NatSec More Inclusive (2022) — a comment in Inkstick
Digital Democracy Is Dangerous (2022) — an investigation showing that anti-digital authoritarianism campaigns are astroturfed
Biden's war on Chinese chips is counterproductive (2022) — an op-ed
in the National Interest arguing that Biden is making inflation worse
Biden's Successor to TPP is a Boon for Big Tech (2022) — an investigation for The American Prospect arguing Biden's Indo-Pacific Economic Framework will increase Big Tech's profits
China's tech crackdown could give it an edge (2022) — an op-ed in The Diplomat arguing China's tech crackdown could have economic and geopolitical benefits for Beijing
High-Tech Pandemic Solutions Don't Save Lives. They Just Boost Profits (2022) — an investigation showing that high-tech solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic did not work and traded off with far more successful low-tech approaches
The US-China Tech War Isn't Inevitable (2022) — an article in Inkstick contending that the US and China should cooperate on technology-related issues rather than going to war over them
Who really benefits from digital development? (2022) — an article in TechCrunch finding that digital development often benefits Big Tech
US tech giants are playing up the China threat to oppose an antitrust bill. They may succeed (2022) — an op-ed in the South China Morning Post arguing that antitrust is in US national security interests
Vaccine Apartheid Has Reinforced US Empire (2022) — an article arguing the US has made Covid worse to help its interests
The Great Tech Rivalry: China vs the US (2021) — a report for the Kennedy School on ML, 5G, quantum information science, semiconductors, biotech, & green tech in China and the US
NextGen's 7 Things to Watch for During the UN General Assembly (2021) — a press release for Foreign Policy for America, a leading advocacy group for progressive foreign policy priorities
Collaborating to measure digital transformation: Sharing the Digital Impact Alliance’s draft Digital Transformation Indicator Library (2021) — a dataset of over two thousand indicators of readiness for digital investment that I collected and cleaned
Stopping Killer Robots: Country Positions on Banning Fully Autonomous Weapons and Retaining Human Control (2020) — a first of its kind report describing national policies regarding fully autonomous weapons
UC Berkeley is making the student housing crisis worse (2019) — an investigation published in the San Francisco Chronicle
Accounting for Political Tensions in Post-Cold War Sino-Mongolian Relations (2019, available upon request)
Cluster Munition Monitor (2018) — a report that exposed war crimes in bombings in Syria and Yemen
Campaign to Stop Killer Robots Report on Activities (2018) — a report documenting the campaign's influence on policymakers through lobbying
Interviews
Technology as a weapon of empire — Interviewed by the podcast American Prestige
The DSR Daily Brief — Interviewed by the Deep State Radio network
Vaccine Apartheid Politics — Interviewed by the podcast This Is Hell!
How Big Tech used COVID to pull of one of the biggest grifts in history — Interviewed by The Real News Podcast
Policies I've Written
United Nations Joint Statement on Data Protection and Privacy in the COVID-19 Response — a privacy policy adopted by the UN, the World Health Organization, and the World Bank
Land Value Recapture Policy and Inclusion in the Adeline Corridor Plan — a tax to fund affordable housing in Berkeley, California using revenue stemming from increases in land value
Banning the box on housing — a law preventing landlords from discrimination against formerly incarcerated tenants in Berkeley
Affordable housing action plan (Housing Related Referrals) — an ordinance codifying the prioritization of various affordable housing initiatives in the city of Berkeley
Opposition to President Trump’s first military budget (Oppose the National Defense Authorization Act) — a law that made Berkeley the only city in the country to formally oppose one of President Trump’s military budgets
Presentations
Technology Policy at the United Nations (2021) — presented to Foreign Policy for America's NextGen Initiative
Harnessing mobile phone data in response to COVID-19 (2020) — presented to UN agencies and several National Statistical Offices in Africa
Explanations for political tensions in post-Cold War Sino-Mongolian relations (2020) — presented at the annual plenary for young scholars of the Institute for New Economic Thinking
Data privacy risks and data protection: What happens when sensitive peacekeeping data leaks? (2020) — presented to the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations
The risks of government-backed data sharing initiatives to combat COVID-19 (2020) — presented to the UN Privacy Policy Group
Cited By
The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, Financial Times, The Economist, Foreign Policy, Lawfare, The Hoover Institution, The Dig Newsletter, The John Quincy Adams Society Newsletter
Affiliations & Achievements
Co-President of the Board of the John Gardner Fellowship Association
Member of Foreign Policy for America's NextGen Initiative
John Gardner Public Service Fellow
Recipient of the Owen D. Young Prize in International Relations
Graduate of UC Berkeley with Highest Honors in Political Science, served as the Co-President of the Debate Society of Berkeley and a Senior Editor of the Berkeley Political Review
Illinois High School State Champion in Public Forum Debate (ranked as high as 3rd nationally)
Coached the top-ranked high school public forum debater in the country in 2018 as well as the 2017 national champions
Recipient of the 2014 Rensselaer Medal from Evanston Township High School as the top student in Math and Engineering
