CFR Welcomes Esther Brimmer as the James H. Binger Senior Fellow in Global Governance 

Esther Brimmer will return to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as the James H. Binger Senior Fellow in Global Governance on January 3, 2023. At CFR, she will conduct research on issues related to global governance and international institutions and will coordinate the work of the Council of Councils, including the annual conference, regional meeting, and global memos.

Brimmer was previously an adjunct senior fellow at CFR and served as project director for the 2017 CFR Task Force Report, Arctic Imperatives: Reinforcing U.S. Strategy on America’s Fourth Coast. She has been a CFR member since 1991.

Brimmer is stepping down as the executive director and CEO of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, the largest nonprofit professional association dedicated to international education, where she has served since 2017.

Brimmer served at the U.S. Department of State as the assistant secretary for International Organization Affairs from 2009 to 2013. She served on the Policy Planning Staff from 1999 to 2001 and on the staff of the Under Secretary for Political Affairs from 1993 to 1995.

Brimmer was the J. B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs from 2013 to 2015. She was deputy director and director of research at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies from 2001 to 2009. From 1995 to 1999, she was a senior associate at the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict.

Brimmer was also a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, a senior advisor at McLarty Associates, and an associate at McKinsey & Company. She has published numerous articles and edited eight books on transatlantic relations. Her work has been translated into five languages.

Brimmer received her bachelor’s degree from Pomona College and her M.Phil and D.Phil in international relations from Oxford University.