About the Author

Susan Ariel Aaronson is a CIGI senior fellow. She is an expert in international trade, digital trade, artificial intelligence (AI) governance and human rights. She is currently writing on public participation in the governance of AI, comparative advantage in extended reality (XR) and the future of data governance.

Susan is also a research professor of international affairs and a cross-disciplinary fellow at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, where she directs the Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub. The Hub educates policy makers and the public on domestic and international data governance. The Hub also maps the governance of personal, public and proprietary data around the world to illuminate the state of data governance.

Susan is the former Minerva Chair at the National War College. She is the author of six books and more than 70 scholarly articles. Her work has been funded by major international foundations including the MacArthur, Minderoo, Hewlett and Ford Foundations; governments such as the Netherlands, the United States and Canada; international organizations such as the United Nations, International Labour Organization and the World Bank; and US corporations including Google, Ford Motor and Levi Strauss. She loves to do triathlons and study ballet.

Acronyms and Abbreviations

AEB Audit and Evaluation Branch

AI artificial intelligence

CIFAR Canadian Institute for Advanced Research

CSET Center for Security and Emerging Technology

Difi Norwegian Agency for Public Management and eGovernment

G20 Group of Twenty

GDPR General Data Protection Regulation

GE3LS ethical, environmental, economic, legal and social issues of genomics

IFD Innovation Fund Denmark

OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

PIs principal investigators

R&D research and development

UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization