Linda Robinson

Linda Robinson is a national security and foreign affairs expert, best-selling author, and former foreign correspondent whose career spans more than four decades of reporting, policy research, and government advisory work. Robinson has extensive experience in international affairs and national security, including interviewing guerrillas in Colombia and embedding with U.S. special forces in Afghanistan. She served as a foreign correspondent, bureau chief, and senior writer for U.S. News and World Report, as well as senior editor of Foreign Affairs magazine.

Robinson is the author of four books that have contributed to public understanding of American military strategy and foreign policy. Her works include "Masters of Chaos," a New York Times bestseller; "Tell Me How This Ends," a Foreign Affairs bestseller and a New York Times Notable Book; "One Hundred Victories," about Afghanistan; and "Intervention or Neglect," about Central America. She received the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Reporting on National Defense and the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for reporting on Latin America. Her journalism and research emphasize immersive, on-the-ground inquiry as essential to understanding the people and places at the center of U.S. foreign policy.

Robinson was a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, where she also directed the Center for Middle East Public Policy. She co-authored more than 20 RAND publications, including "Rethinking U.S. Strategy in the Middle East: Sustainable Partnerships, Strategic Investments," "Making Victory Count After Defeating ISIS," and "Improving Strategic Competence: Lessons from 13 Years of War." Her research at RAND received five awards. Other previous appointments include Public Policy Scholar at the Wilson Center, Senior Consulting Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Writer in Residence at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, and Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.

Robinson has contributed to public service through roles such as chair of the U.S. Army War College Board of Visitors, for which she received the Outstanding Civilian Service Award, and as senior advisor at the U.S. State Department for the U.S. Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability. She has testified before Congress on topics including special operations, the Iraq war, and the Middle East. Robinson has published widely in major newspapers and foreign affairs journals and provided commentary on PBS's Washington Week in Review and other television programs.

Robinson serves as Senior Fellow for Women and Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she writes about women's political and economic leadership, the relationship between gender equality and democracy, and technology-facilitated issues. At the Council on Foreign Relations, she researches global women's leadership, focusing on women's political participation and economic empowerment. Her transition from military and security reporting to championing women's leadership reflects the breadth of her expertise and her perspective that global challenges such as democratic backsliding and conflict prevention are deeply interconnected.