Our first speaker of 2025 is Dr. Stacy Closson, a faculty member at the National Intelligence University and a specialist on Arctic security and energy.

Dr. Stacy Closson is on the faculty of the National Intelligence University after serving as the Deputy National Intelligence Officer on the National Intelligence Council from 2022-2024. She was a Global Fellow with the Kennan Institute from 2016-2024 and a Wilson Fellow in 2009-2010. She was previously an Assistant Professor at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce.

She received her PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science in International Relations. Dr. Closson has been a Transatlantic Post-Doctoral Fellow in think tanks in Switzerland and Germany, and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Helsinki’s Aleksanteri Institute. She was a Fulbright Senior Fellow at National Chengchi University, Department of Diplomacy in Taipei. From 1996-2002

Dr. Closson worked in the US Department of Defense as a political-military analyst, entering as a Presidential Management Fellow. Dr. Closson’s writings on Russia, Eurasia and the Arctic are featured in academic journals and think tanks in the U.S. and Europe. Dr. Closson’s current research focuses on global energy security, Russia-China relations, and Arctic security. Following on her recently co-authored book on energy futures, she is working on China futures at the nexus of energy, economics and geopolitics. As a returning Fulbright fellow from Taipei, she is writing on a Russia-China alliance and what this means for US foreign policy. On the Arctic, she will use a funded fellowship at the Aleksanteri Institute in Helsinki to assess Russia’s foreign policy in the Arctic, from doctrine to actions, and the type of power Russia wants to be in the region.