Transatlantic Dialogues: Emma Ashford

Transatlantic Dialogues: Emma Ashford (Stimson Center)

European Energy Security, Economic Statecraft, and Relations with the United States in the Wake of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

EU High Representative Josep Borrel noted this month that Europeans […] have decoupled the sources of our prosperity from the sources of our security. So, our prosperity was based on China and Russia – energy and market. […] On the other hand, we delegated our security to the United States.

In the wake of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, Europeans will have to fundamentally reshape their energy regime to end their dependency on Russian oil and gas. At the same time, the war has underscored the central role of the US in European security.

Emma Ashford, Senior Fellow with the Reimagining US Grand Strategy program at the Stimson Center, will discuss the changes in the European energy regime and the transatlantic relationship. The United States has shifted its focus to the Indo-Pacific and away from the Middle East; the relationship with the Gulf States and other energy producers, that of Europe and Russia, and the awareness that economic statecraft has reemerged on the world stage, will all affect the future of the relationship between the United States and Europe.

Emma Ashford works on a variety of issues related to the future of U.S foreign policy, international security, and the politics of global energy markets. Her first book, Oil, the State, and War: The Foreign Policies of Petrostates, was published by Georgetown University Press in 2022, and explored the international security ramifications of oil production and export in states such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela.  

The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies is proud to host Emma Ashford as the first speaker of the Transatlantic Dialogue series, organized together with the Embassy of the United States in the Netherlands, that looks at how the relationship between Europe and the United States can be adapted to the geopolitical realities on the 21^st century.

Emma Ashford:

Emma Ashford is a Senior Fellow with the Reimagining US Grand Strategy program at the Stimson Center. She works on a variety of issues related to the future of U.S foreign policy, international security, and the politics of global energy markets. She has expertise in the politics of Russia, Europe, and the Middle East. Ashford is also a nonresident fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point, and an adjunct assistant professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. 

Her first book, Oil, the State, and War: The Foreign Policies of Petrostates, was published by Georgetown University Press in 2022, and explored the international security ramifications of oil production and export in states such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela.  

Prior to joining the Stimson Center, Ashford was a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s New American Engagement Initiative, which focused on challenging the prevailing assumptions governing US foreign policy. She was also a research fellow in defense and foreign policy at the Cato Institute, where she worked on a variety of issues including the US-Saudi relationship, sanctions policy, and US policy towards Russia, and US foreign policy and grand strategy more broadly. 

Ashford writes a bi-weekly column, “It’s Debatable,” for Foreign Policy, and her long-form writing has been featured in publications such as Foreign Affairs, the Texas National Security Review, Strategic Studies Quarterly, the York Times, the Washington Post, the National Interest, and War on the Rocks, among others. She is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and holds a PhD in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia.