Center for a New American Security

Executive Vice President, United States Institute of Peace

Kristin Lord is Executive Vice President at the United States Institute of Peace. She was until January 2013 Executive Vice President and Director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security where she oversaw the center’s research and served as one of three members of the center’s leadership team.  Prior to joining CNAS, Dr. Lord was a Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program and Saban Center for Middle East Policy at The Brookings Institution. At Brookings, Dr. Lord directed the science and technology initiative of the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World.

Before joining Brookings, Dr. Lord was Associate Dean for Strategy, Research, and External Relations and, earlier, Associate Dean for Management and Planning at The George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. In her most recent position, she oversaw the school's six research centers, graduate admissions, public affairs, and strategic initiatives. During her twelve year tenure at the Elliott School, she launched three master's programs, ten certificate programs, a global network of university partnerships, the school's skills curriculum, and numerous educational programs for students, diplomats, and mid-career professionals from the public, private, and non-profit sectors. A member of the faculty, she also taught courses on U.S. public diplomacy, U.S. foreign policy, and the causes of war.

In 2005-2006, Dr. Lord served as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow and Special Adviser to the Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs. In that role, she worked on a wide range of issues including international science and technology cooperation, international health, democracy and the rule of law, communications, and public diplomacy.

Dr. Lord is the author of Perils and Promise of Global Transparency: Why the Information Revolution May Not Lead to Security Democracy or Peace, (SUNY Press, 2006), Power and Conflict in an Age of Transparency, edited with Bernard I. Finel (Palgrave Macmillan, 2000), and numerous book chapters, policy papers, and articles. She is the co-author or editor of five CNAS reports: America’s Path: Grand Strategy for the Next Administration (with Richard Fontaine),  America’s Cyber Future: Security and Prosperity in the Information Age (with Travis Sharp), Managing 21st Century Diplomacy: Lessons from Global Corporations (with Richard Fontaine), America’s Extended Hand: Assessing the Obama Administration’s Global Engagement Strategy (with Marc Lynch) and Beyond Bullets: A Pragmatic Strategy to Combat Violent Islamist Extremism (with John Nagl and Seth Rosen).  In 2008, she published two Brookings reports A New Millennium of Knowledge? The Arab Human Development Report on Building a Knowledge Society, Five Years On and Voices of America: U.S. Public Diplomacy in the 21st Century. Her articles have appeared in Washington Quarterly, World Politics Review, CNN.com, Defense News, Joint Force Quarterly, Roll Call, The Hill, International Studies Quarterly, Science, Foreign Service Journal, National Interest on-line, The Christian Science Monitor, Kuwait Times, The National, Politico, Huffington Post, and Foreign Policy.com.  She has appeared on NPR, Al-Jazeera, BBC Radio, VOA, PBS, and MSNBC.

Dr. Lord is a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University and her B.A., magna cum laude, in international studies from American University.