Capt. Shiho Rybski

Leadership.

Capt. Shiho Rybski, U.S.N. Reserves

Deputy Regional Advisor for Arctic and U.S. European Command

CAPT Shiho Rybski serves as the Deputy Regional Advisor for Arctic and U.S. European Command at the Irregular Warfare Center (IWC). A premier national security professional and hybrid threat expert, she shapes the strategic frameworks, training initiatives, and non-kinetic plans required to protect vital U.S. and partner interests across the Arctic and European theaters. She brings nearly three decades of active, reserve, and civilian service with the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Department of State to the Center, bridging elite aviation command experience with multinational interagency operations.

CAPT Rybski’s foundational expertise is rooted in a distinguished naval career as a designated Naval Aviator, Electronic Countermeasures Officer, and Mission Commander in the EA-6B Prowler. Her early operational career included critical tours with VAQ-136 Gauntlets in Atsugi, Japan, multiple Pacific Fleet deployments, and combat operations aboard the USS Kitty Hawk in support of Operations Southern Watch and Iraqi Freedom. Throughout her operational and instructional assignments, she served as a Flag Aide to the Commander of Strike Group FIVE; the Aircrew Department Head and Radar Systems Instructor at the Aviation Electronic Warfare School; and an ethnographer and wargame analyst at the U.S. Naval War College. Transitioning to the Navy Reserve in 2009, she has held senior leadership roles supporting U.S. Naval Forces Europe, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, U.S. Navy Information Operations Command Norfolk, and the U.S. Navy Warfare Development Center, specialized in integrating information operations and electronic warfare into fleet and theater-level exercises.

Following her extensive operational tours, CAPT Rybski seamlessly transitioned her strategic insights into the international diplomatic and defense sector. From 2019 to 2026, she served as a U.S. Government Representative and Director of Training and Exercise at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats in Helsinki, Finland. In this international capacity, she led training, exercise, and wargame design for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union (EU), and participating states, notably directing a cognitive wargame simulation series to educate practitioners against Russian and Chinese influence operations. An accomplished designer of customized asymmetric warfare simulations, her work includes building tailored irregular warfare exercises for the governments of Austria, Slovakia, and Canada, as well as the NATO Assistant Secretary General and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

A highly credentialed regional specialist in the Arctic and Western Balkans, CAPT Rybski is an active contributor to multinational security research, serving as a member of the NATO System Analysis and Studies working group, Arctic Storm 2030. She is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and holds a Master of Arts from Chapman University. Demonstrating a continuous dedication to professional education and advanced strategic theory, she is currently completing a Master of Military Science at the United States Army War College and conducts ongoing doctoral research as a Ph.D. researcher at the University of Vaasa, Finland, where she examines national comprehensive security and total defense strategies through wargaming.