Emily Harding is deputy director and senior fellow with the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She joined CSIS from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), where she was deputy staff director. In her nearly 20 years of government service, she has served in a series of high-profile national security positions at critical moments. While working for SSCI, she led the Committee’s multiyear investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections. The five-volume, 1,300-page report reshaped the way the United States defends itself against foreign adversaries seeking to manipulate elections, and it was lauded for its rigor, its thoroughness, and as the only bipartisan effort on election interference. During her tenure on the Committee, she also served as the subject matter expert on election security, counterintelligence and associated cybersecurity issues, and the Middle East. She oversaw the activities of 18 intelligence agencies and led SSCI staff in drafting legislation, conducting oversight of the intelligence community, and developing their expertise in intelligence community matters.
She began her career as a leadership analyst at CIA, and then became a manager of analysts and analytic programs. She led the Iraq Group during the attempted Islamic State takeover of Iraq and Syria and led a multidisciplinary group of analysts working crises worldwide, drawing from many perspectives to provide rich analysis to policymakers. During a tour at the National Security Council, she served as executive assistant to the deputy national security adviser for global democracy strategy and then as director for Iran, where she led interagency efforts to create innovative policies drawing on all elements of national power. After leaving the White House, she served on a team running the first Office of the Director of National Intelligence-led presidential transition, where she was responsible for liaising with both campaigns and briefing the incoming administration on a wide range of intelligence topics. Harding holds a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s degree in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia.
Three ways a technological revolution will impact the intel community | Defense News | July 2023
Competing without Fighting: China’s Strategy of Political Warfare | CSIS Report | August 2023
Seven Critical Technologies for Winning the Next War | CSIS Report | April 2023
Using Big Data to Reduce Leaks | CSIS Commentary | April 2023
Innovation for Resilience | CSIS Report | March 2023
From Maybe-Secure to Responsible Security: The New National Cybersecurity Strategy | CSIS Commentary | March 2023
One Year Later: Assessing Russia’s War in Ukraine | CSIS Event | February 2023
Experts React: Factors Shaping the Russia-Ukraine Conflict in 2023 | February 2023
A Hometown Team: A conversation with President of the Las Vegas Raiders Sandra Douglass Morgan | Smart Women, Smart Power Event | January 2023
Building Supply Chain Resilience | CSIS Commentary | December 2022
Building Democratic Resilience | CSIS Event | November 2022
#NAFO and Winning the Information War: Lessons Learned from Ukraine | CSIS Event | October 2022
Hard Choices in a Ransomware Attack | CSIS Report | September 2022
Never Trust, Always Verify: Federal Migration to ZTA and Endpoint Security | June 2022
The Hidden War in Ukraine: Behind the Scenes Cyber Conflict | CSIS Commentary | June 2022
Lessons from the Intelligence Community’s Annual Threat Assessment | CSIS Critical Questions | March 2022
Global Security Forum | CSIS Report | March 2022
Assessing the Russian Military Campaign in Ukraine | CSIS Event | March 2022
Book Launch: War Transformed: The Future of Twenty-First-Century Great Power Competition and Conflict | CSIS Event | February 2022
Scenario Analysis on a Ukrainian Insurgency | CSIS Commentary | February 2022
Move Over JARVIS, Meet OSCAR | CSIS Report | January 2022
Sparking a Revolution in Open Source Intelligence | CSIS Event | December 2021
From Data to Insight: Making Sense out of Data Collected in the Gray Zone | CSIS Commentary | October 2021
The Deeper Consequences of the War on Terror | CSIS Event | August 2021
Kaseya Ransomware Attack Demands Action to Match Rhetoric | CSIS Critical Questions | July 2021