Whitney Grespin

Deputy Director, Fellows Program

Dr. Whitney Grespin is a foreign policy scholar and practitioner specializing in security force assistance, contingency contracting, and institutional capacity building in fragile and conflict-affected regions. She received her PhD from King’s College London’s Defence Studies Department at the UK Command & Staff College, after which she held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Institute for Future Conflict and joined the UK Centre for Military Ethics. Her practical experience includes embedded advising to the Somali Ministry of Defense in Mogadishu, supporting the U.S. Army War College’s Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, and conducting capacity assessments for the United Nations Mine Action Service in Somalia as well as serving as the Lead Researcher for the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD) Regional Strategy to counter Improvised Explosive Devices. Most recently, she served as Regional Program Lead for institutional capacity building for the U.S. Department of Defense’s Institute for Security Governance’s work across the AFRICOM AOR. She has also held teaching positions at American University, George Washington University, and King’s College London.

Before joining IWI, Dr. Grespin held a Non-Resident Fellowship with the Joint Special Operations
University and has written extensively on SOF and the American way of war as well as the use of USG contractors to support partner capacity building. She is on the Governing Board of the International Studies Association’s International Security Studies Section, is an advisory member of the Security Sector Reform Unit for the United Nations, and serves as an Observer with the International Code of Conduct Association as well as holding an Education Ambassador posting with the Council on Foreign Relations.