Caitríona Heinl

Caitríona Heinl is Executive Director at the Azure Forum for Contemporary Security Strategy and Adjunct Research Fellow at the School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin. She has over ten years’ experience within applied policy research, strategic advisory and capacity building environments specialising in international security with particular focus on conflict prevention strategies related to international cybersecurity policy (e.g. foreign and defence policy/cyber diplomacy), strategic technologies, regional security architectures and the Asia Pacific/Southeast Asia/EU.  

She engages through her work regularly with government agencies, international organisations and industry such as the UN, NATO, OSCE, EU, ASEAN/ARF, military colleges, diplomatic corps, ministries of justice and defence, cybersecurity corporations, insurance companies and universities. She is regularly invited as a subject matter expert to Track 1/1.5 diplomacy dialogues. Caitríona was previously Research Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) Centre of Excellence for National Security and NTU Business School Cyber Risk Management project. She provided policy analysis to the National Security Coordination Secretariat under the Prime Minister's Office and other government agencies. She previously led the Justice and Home Affairs policy group and Justice Steering Committee at the Institute of International and European Affairs (Ireland). In 2020-2022, she served as a member of the Irish government’s Commission on the Defence Forces, and continues her work as a subject matter expert within a number of the EU’s cyber diplomacy and security initiatives.   

She is a member of the Irish government’s Department of Foreign Affairs Foreign Policy Network, having held Fellowships with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and Leiden University Institute of Security and Global Affairs. Caitriona continues to be a Member of the organising committee for the MIT international conference on cyber norms/international law and Co-Editor of the EU Institute of Security Studies cyber commentary series. She sits as a founding Director for the Irish Defence and Security Association, among other ongoing research affiliations. 

She has published in many reputable outlets, including the Council on Foreign Relations, journal of the Singapore Armed Forces, Asia Policy, Jakarta Post, Business Times Singapore, The Nation (Thailand), and Oxford University Press. Caitríona holds an MPhil in International Relations from Cambridge University. She graduated in commerce and law (BBLS) at UCD and the University of Innsbruck with first class honours and then qualified as a Solicitor with the Law Society of England & Wales and Attorney-at-Law in New York