Joanna Spear

Dr. Spear is a Research Professor of International Affairs, and Director of the National Security Studies Program at the Elliott School of International Affairs. She was previously Director of the FAO Regional Skill Sustainment Initiative, and Director of the MA program in Security Policy Studies. Prior to joining GW, she was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London.

Dr. Spear has published on a variety of subjects in international security, including arms control, U.S. foreign policy making, post-conflict peace building and arms exports. Her work can be found in Arms Control Today, Contemporary Security Policy, Security Studies, Strategic Analysis, Review of International Studies and World Politics Review.

Dr. Spear has held fellowships at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, the Brookings Institution, the Royal United Services Institute, the Institute for Defence and Security Analyses, New Delhi and was twice a visiting scholar at Chatham House. During 2023-24 she will be a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC.

Dr. Spear is a Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London. She sits on the editorial boards of the RUSI Journal and the National Defense University’s PRISM journal of complex operations.