CFR Welcomes Linda Robinson as a Senior Fellow for Women and Foreign Policy

Linda Robinson has returned to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as a senior fellow for women and foreign policy. Robinson was previously an adjunct fellow at CFR and a senior editor of Foreign Affairs magazine. At CFR, Robinson is writing a book on global women’s leadership and her areas of research include women’s political participation and economic empowerment.

Robinson was a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation from 2013 to 2022, where she directed the Center for Middle East Public Policy from 2020 to 2022. She co-authored over twenty RAND publications including Rethinking U.S. Strategy in the Middle East: Sustainable Partnerships, Strategic Investments (2021); Making Victory Count After Defeating ISIS (2017); and Improving Strategic Competence: Lessons from 13 Years of War (2014).

Robinson was previously a fellow at the Wilson Center, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

Robinson previously was a foreign correspondent and senior writer for U.S. News and World Report. In government service, Robinson served as chair of the U.S. Army War College Board of Visitors, for which she received the Outstanding Civilian Service Award. She has also served in other advisory capacities, most recently as senior advisor at the U.S. State Department for the U.S. Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability.

Her books One Hundred Victories: Special Ops and the Future of American Warfare (2013), Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq (2008), and Masters of Chaos: The Secret History of the Special Forces (2004) were published by PublicAffairs. She 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 holds a BA from Swarthmore College.