Linda Robinson

Senior Fellow for Women and Foreign Policy

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Diamonstein-Spielvogel Project on the Future of Democracy and Women and Foreign Policy Program and Women Around the World

Ailing Democracy and Declining Women’s Representation: How They Are Related and What to Do About It

June 5, 2024
A woman leaves after casting her vote at a polling station during the sixth phase of the general election, in New Delhi, India, May 25, 2024.

Expert Bio

Linda Robinson is senior fellow for women and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) where she writes about women's political and economic leadership, the relationship between gender equality and democracy, technology-facilitated violence, and current international affairs. She was previously a senior international researcher and director of the Center for Middle East Public Policy at the RAND Corporation. She has also been a fellow at the Wilson Center, the Merrill Center at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and the Nieman Foundation at Harvard. A former foreign correspondent for U.S. News & World Report and senior editor at Foreign Affairs, Ms. Robinson provides frequent commentary on international affairs and U.S. foreign policy. Her books include Masters of Chaos, a New York Times bestseller; Tell Me How This Ends, a Foreign Affairs bestseller and a New York Times Notable Book of 2008; One Hundred Victories, about Afghanistan; and Intervention or Neglect, about Central America. She received the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Reporting on National Defense and the Maria Moors Cabot Prize from Columbia University for reporting on Latin America. She has published over twenty RAND studies and hundreds of articles based on extensive field research, and has testified before Congress on special operations, the Iraq war, and the Middle East.

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