Janet Briggs

From undersea internet cable to international AI policy to Russian cyberattacks, U.S. Ambassador at Large for Cyberspace and Digital Policy Nathaniel C. Fick handles it all. At the annual Everett P. Pope lecture on Tuesday in Kresge Auditorium, Fick shared how the U.S. approaches digital policy. The talk was accompanied by a lively question and answer segment, where he was questioned on Israel-Palestine and China’s role in technology development.

The Pope lecture series, partially sponsored by the Bowdoin Marine Corps Society, brings former Marines to talk about public service in many forms. After graduating from Dartmouth College as a classics major, Fick served on combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq during the early 2000s. Following work in corporate cybersecurity, he was appointed to his current position in 2022.

Fick started the talk by explaining that the ability of the U.S. to innovate in key technological areas, especially in artificial intelligence policy and internet architecture development, is increasingly becoming a source of national power.

“Traditional measures of strength that we are accustomed to using, things like GDP or military capacity, are more and more downstream of our ability to lead in things like AI and quantum computing and biotechnology,” he said.

Fick structured his talk as a tour of different parts of the world that are most affected by the American cybersecurity strategy, starting with the UN in New York City, where the U.S. has pushed for AI policy. The second location was Beijing, where the U.S. engaged in conversation with foreign ministers about cyberattacks attributed to the Chinese—specifically the recent Volt Typhoon attacks—and about Chinese military technology support for Russia.

The third place Fick discussed was Tuvalu, a small island in the Pacific, where the U.S. and Google have partnered to run undersea cable necessary for global internet connectivity.

Additionally, he mentioned Bletchley, where the U.S. took a “voluntary commitment” approach in which AI companies voluntarily commit to U.S. safety and security regulations rather than being directly regulated by them. Talan, Estonia was the final place Fick noted, as it is the hub for cyber support and protection supporting Ukraine.

An important issue Fick brought up was the rapid foreign policy changes taking place due to new presidential administrations. He emphasized that consistency and trust are crucial to effective diplomacy.

“The United States needs to be a consistent partner, because these problems are hard,” he said. “The defense policy of Slovenia shouldn’t necessarily depend upon what a handful of voters in a particular U.S. state do.”

Following his talk, Fick was joined by last year’s Pope lecturer, Admiral Gregory G. Johnson, who talked to him about his background studying classics and the mentality of the Marines.

Fick then opened up to audience questions. He was asked by one audience member about  U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts, specifically addressing U.S. military financing in Israel.

“Do you ever have an internal conflict about the role of our military in the changing world?” Eri Bolton ’27 asked.

In response, Fick posited that the American power in the world has been imperfect but overall a net positive in allowing prosperity for people across the globe. He also indicated that progress toward resolving the violence in Gaza may be near.

“We have pushed as hard as we possibly can for a ceasefire. We have pushed to get more humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” he said. “We are perhaps getting close to at least a temporary cessation of hostilities on the northern border with Hezbollah.”

Bolton attended the talk as part of a wager in Associate Professor of Classics Robert Sobak’s Thucydides and the Invention of Political Theory class. She thought the questions portion of the talk added to the overall lecture.

“I was grateful for the people in the audience that pressed points,” Bolton said. “I know that he seemed to take a lot of pride in the accomplishments made in Ukraine and Estonia, and I think it’s also important to think about things the U.S. shouldn’t be doing or should have done differently.”

A few audience members asked questions related to China as a direct competitor in technological innovation, specifically regarding the differences in AI regulations between the two countries. Fick responded by explaining that there are two operating systems of government regulation in the world right now: one that respects human rights and one that is more authoritarian. Without innovation in the U.S., an operating system that does not respect human rights could prevail.

“We need to do everything we can to make sure that we sustain that innovative advance, which means not no guardrails,” he said. “It doesn’t mean ungoverned innovation, but innovation and empowering our innovation, ecosystem and our innovation economy better be our North Star because if we lose the big competition, then all the other ideas go away.”

Fick similarly responded to a question about the morals around technological innovation, emphasizing the need for continued progress in light of the innovation of adversaries—namely China.

“I was a voice inside our government not to pause [AI development] because if we had unilaterally paused, our adversaries would not have paused,” he said. “In an ideal world, everybody would pause, of course. But in the unideal world that we actually inhabit, a unilateral American pause would have only resulted in us falling further behind.”

A question was asked about TikTok and the relationship between social media and geopolitics. Fick explained that he is on the side of banning TikTok in the U.S. through legislation in Congress due to China’s access to TikTok data. Beyond TikTok, in response to a question about China’s modernization achievements, he conceded that China has accomplished impressive progress.

“I think that what the Chinese government has done over a 60 or 70-year period is extraordinary. They lifted more people out of poverty than probably every UN program put together,” he said. “I think China has become a formidable competitor with the United States.”

While there was lively engagement with Fick’s lecture, Daniel Hennelly ’26, who is the only Marine currently enrolled at the College right now and has attended this talk since his first year, took issue with the subject matter that focused more on current U.S. accomplishments than Fick’s experience as a public servant.

“I think that it was interesting and was good, but I don’t think it’s really in the spirit of public service, what his talk was about. I don’t think anybody left that talk being like, ‘I want to serve,’” Hennelly said. “But I also think it’s a waste of having the ambassador of cybersecurity here to talk about that.”