Julie Smith Joins GMF as Director of Asia and Future of Geopolitics Programs

WASHINGTON  – The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) is pleased to announce that Julianne (“Julie”) Smith will join the organization as Senior Advisor to the President and Director of the Asia and Future of Geopolitics programs on September 3, 2019. Smith is rejoining the organization, having served as program officer in GMF’s Foreign Policy Program from 2000 to 2003.

GMF’s Asia program tracks and interprets the implications of developments in Asia and brings together practitioners and experts from Europe, America, and Asia to align policy perspectives. The Future of Geopolitics program examines the challenges to international order and looks at how the transatlantic democracies can cooperate to address both internal and external threats to democratic stability. As director of these two programs, Smith will oversee a broad portfolio of research, analysis, and convening on a set of issues critical to GMF’s mission of strengthening transatlantic cooperation.

“I am so pleased to welcome Julie back to GMF.  Having had the privilege of working with Julie at GMF and in government, I am delighted to have the opportunity to call her my colleague again,” said GMF President Karen Donfried. “At this moment, few issues are as critical as the ability of the United States and Europe to align policy towards Asia. Understanding the increasingly volatile geopolitical chessboard is essential for wise decision-making on the international stage. Julie’s leadership of these two important programs at GMF will be a tremendous asset, as we work to inform the transatlantic policy conversation with thoughtful analysis.  In my role as president, I look forward to benefiting from her experience and advice.”

Smith joins GMF after spending a year in Berlin as a Richard Weizsäcker Fellow at the Bosch Academy. From 2014-2018, Smith directed the Transatlantic Security Program and the Strategy and Statecraft Program at CNAS. From 2012-2013, she served as the Deputy National Security Advisor to the Vice President of the United States. Previously, she spent three years at the Department of Defense as the Principal Director for European and NATO Policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.  

Smith’s recent Foreign Affairs article, The Old World and the Middle Kingdom, addresses many of the issues at the forefront of the transatlantic conversation on Asia. Smith succeeds Jamie Fly, who served as director of GMF’s Asia and Future of Geopolitics program before becoming President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in July, 2019.