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Emily Harding

Emily Harding

Adjunct Lecturer

About

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

Expertise

Topics

  • Intelligence
  • National Security
  • Technology

Additional Resources