Pavlina Pavlova is a #ShareTheMicInCyber Fellow at New America in Washington, D.C., and a Cybercrime Expert at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna.
As a Public Policy Advisor at the CyberPeace Institute, she led civil society engagement in UN processes on cybersecurity and cybercrime. Prior to this, she served as an official at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), where she was appointed the OSCE Chairmanship’s Liaison Officer and coordinated OSCE human dimension programmes.
Beginning her career at the European Parliament, Pavlova's policy expertise now spans over a decade in advisory roles, covering technology, security, and human rights at international organisations and national institutions.
Her research, at the intersection of technology and governance, has been presented at and published by the Yale MacMillan Center, the Harvard Kennedy School, the Stanford Internet Observatory, and the University of Cambridge, among others.
Pavlova is an internationally recognised speaker on cyber policy and diplomacy. She has participated in policy discussions worldwide, briefed the European Parliament on the use of cyber in international conflicts, lectured at the European Academy of Diplomacy on coordinated cyber operations and disinformation, trained ambassadors from African and developing countries on cyber diplomacy, addressed the protection of critical infrastructure against cyber operations at the Oxford Process on International Law Protections in Cyberspace, and briefed the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the evolving landscape of cyber diplomacy.
Selected Works
- Gendered Disinformation and Connected Cyber Threats: Historical Patterns, New Battlefields, and the Implications for International Security | An article for the Global Policy Journal examining the interconnectedness of cyberattacks and harmful online content and how they can lead to a cycle of perpetuated harm.
- Addressing the Security Risks of Anti-Roma Hate Speech on Social Media Platforms | A research paper published by the Yale MacMillan Center exploring the security risks presented by hateful user-generated content targeting minority communities.
- Shaping Platform Governance in Central Asia: Challenges and Opportunities for Human Rights defenders and Journalists | A research paper published by Leiden University, as part of the EU Cyber Direct project, mapping how the war in Ukraine impacted digital authoritarianism in Central Asia and the responses by social media platforms.