Emma Ashford

Emma Ashford is a senior fellow with the Reimagining US Grand Strategy program at the Stimson Center, where her work focuses on grand strategy, international security, and the future of US foreign policy. Ashford has expertise in the politics of Russia, Europe, and the Middle East. She also serves as a columnist at Foreign Policy and as an adjunct assistant professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University.

Ashford's career includes roles at several influential Washington think tanks. She previously served as a research fellow in defense and foreign policy at the Cato Institute, working on issues such as the US-Saudi relationship, sanctions policy, US policy toward Russia, and broader US foreign policy and grand strategy. Before joining the Stimson Center, Ashford was a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council's New American Engagement Initiative, which focused on challenging prevailing assumptions in US foreign policy. She has also been a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a nonresident fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point.

Ashford is the author of "First Among Equals: U.S. Foreign Policy for a Multipolar World" (Yale University Press), which examines America's role in a multipolar world and proposes pragmatic, realist principles for policymakers. Her first book, "Oil, the State, and War: The Foreign Policies of Petrostates," was published by Georgetown University Press.

Ashford's long-form writing has appeared in publications such as Foreign Affairs, Texas National Security Review, and Strategic Studies Quarterly. Her opinion writing has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy, Vox, The National Interest, and War on the Rocks. She writes the bi-weekly column "It's Debatable" for Foreign Policy and founded and co-hosted the "Power Problems" podcast, which explores key questions in international security and foreign policy. Ashford holds a doctorate in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia.