Julia Groeblacher is a Political Officer in the United States Foreign Service, currently serving in Beirut, Lebanon. Since joining the Foreign Service in 2012, Julia has concentrated on diplomacy in conflict environments including Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. She is keenly interested in the intersection of diplomacy, defense, and technology and what opportunities emerging technologies may present to address non-traditional transnational challenges as well as in questions of tech governance. Julia received her BA from the University of Kansas and her MPP from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. She is originally from Austria and speaks German, Russian, and Arabic.