Our Advisory Committee
Alexi Drew
Chiara Libiseller
Alice Billon-Galland
Alice Billon-Galland is a Research Fellow at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, and one of the 14 NATO Young Leaders selected by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to advise the NATO 2030 process.
As part of the institute’s Europe programme, her research focuses on issues linked to European security inclusive of transatlantic relations, EU, NATO, and with a particular focus on French and British foreign and defence policies as well as post-Brexit security cooperation. Prior to joining Chatham House in October 2019, she led the European defence programme at the European Leadership Network (ELN).
Alice was part of the Leadership Team of Women in International Security UK (WIIS UK) between 2017 and 2021, and currently serves as a member of the Younger Generation Leaders Network on Euro-Atlantic Security (YGLN). She is also a 2018 GLOBSEC Young Leader and regularly comments on defence issues for international media from Deutsche Welle to the Wall Street Journal.
Christina Balis
Christina Balis is Global Campaign Director of Training & Mission Rehearsal at QinetiQ Group plc. She is responsible for leading the development and implementation of the company’s strategy and long-term business winning activities in the areas of individual and collective training, exercises and mission rehearsal.
Prior to assuing her current role in April 2019, she was Director of Services and Products Strategy, responsible for leading the development of Group-wide understanding of global defence and security markets and evolving strategies in response, and for providing leadership, engagement and support to specific business strategies, M&A activities, and more significant business development initiatives.
Christina holds a M.A. and a Ph.D. in International Relations (concentration in Strategic Studies) from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (Bologna, Italy; Washington, DC) and a B.A.(Hons) degree in European Business Administration (Reutlingen, Germany; London, UK). She is fluent in English, French, German, and Greek and has published widely on issues of transatlantic defence and security.
Elisabeth Braw
Elisabeth Braw is a senior research fellow at RUSI; she directs the Institute's Modern Deterrence project, which focuses on how governments, business and civil society can work together to strengthen our defence against existing and emerging threats. Prior to RUSI, she worked at Control Risks following a career as a journalist where she reported from the United States, Germany, Italy and other countries. She remains a contributor to The Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Foreign Policy and (writing in German) the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, focusing on European defence and security, and frequently speaks at conferences.
Elisabeth has also been a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford. A native of Sweden, she attended university in Germany, finishing her Magister Artium degree in political science and German literature with a dissertation on nuclear weapons reduction in Europe. She speaks German, Swedish and English, and gets by in Italian.
Elizabeth Sheldon
Elizabeth Sheldon was CEO of Evidence Talks, creators and manufacturers of digital forensic technologies, before it was acquired by CCL Solutions Group in 2019. CCL Solutions Group is the largest digital Forensic lab in Europe. She now acts as a consultant for CCL.
Elizabeth also holds several non-executive roles in the security field including director for the Aerospace Defence and Security Industry, Chair of the security advisory Board at Cranfield University, , Chair of the Anchor Partner and Strategy Group for the South Central Institute of Technology, Trustee for the charity Camphill Milton Keynes and ambassador for security for SEMLEP.
Hannah Bryce
Hannah Bryce is a Clerk in the House of Commons. Prior to this she was the assistant head of the International Security Department at Chatham House until January 2018. She was a Co-Editor for the Journal of Cyber Policy until January 2019 and continues to contribute to the Journal in an advisory capacity. Prior to working at Chatham House Hannah spent several years working overseas in the humanitarian sector, with a particular focus on humanitarian mine action, managing demining programmes in Sudan, South Sudan and Vietnam. Her research has included articles and presentations on various aspects of explosive weapons policy, the need for improved gender balance in the military, the role of the UN, the conflict in South Sudan, cybersecurity and AI, and the role and impact of the humanitarian sector.
Hannah holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the London School of Economics and a Master of Studies in International Relations from the University of Cambridge. Hannah is also a Trustee for EMERGENCY UK.
Samantha Job
Samantha Job was the Director for Defence and International Security at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) from 2019-2022. Samantha has been a career foreign service officer since 1992. She has worked on geographical issues from South East Asia to the Middle East and thematic issues from war crimes to how to use social media in foreign policy. A theme of her career has been security policy, where she has led policy formulation on counter-proliferation, EU Security and Defence Policy and counter-terrorism.
Her work has taken her to Thailand and the UK’s mission to the UN in New York, where she was the counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation specialist. From 2013 to 2015, Samantha was the joint Head of the North Africa Department in the FCO in London. From 2016 to early 2019, Samantha was the Foreign and Security Policy Counsellor at the British Embassy, Washington, engaging with the US government across all aspects of national security policy.
Having worked part-time and job-shared during her career, Samantha is an FCO champion for flexible working.
Patricia Lewis
Dr. Patricia Lewis is Research Director for International Security at Chatham House. Previously she served as Deputy Director and Scientist-in-Residence at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the former Monterey Institute of International Studies; Director of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research; and Director of the Verification Research, Training and Information Centre in London. She was on Hans Blix’s 2004–06 WMD Commission; the 2010–11 Advisory Panel on the future priorities of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons; and was an adviser to the 2008–10 International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.
She received the American Physical Society’s 2009 Joseph A Burton Forum Award for ‘outstanding contributions to the public understanding or resolution of issues involving the interface of physics and society’. She has a PhD in Nuclear Physics from Birmingham University and graduated in Physics from Manchester University.
Eleanor Scarnell
Eleanor Scarnell is currently a Committee Specialist for the House of Commons Defence Select Committee and has previously worked for the Home Affairs Select Committee. The role of the Select Committee is to scrutinise Ministry of Defence administration, expenditure and policy. Her responsibility is to research the implications of government policies in order to brief the MPs on the Committee. They will then use oral evidence sessions to further explore the policy and produce a report with recommendations for the Government.
Prior to working at Parliament, she studied Russian and European Culture at the University of Birmingham, a degree which involved spending her year abroad in St Petersburg.
Kori Schake
Dr. Kori Schake is the Deputy Director-General of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. She is a contributing editor at the Atlantic, the author of Safe Passage: the Transition from British to American Hegemony (Harvard, 2017) and editor with Jim Mattis of Warriors and Citizens: American Views of Our Military (Hoover Institution, 2016). She has worked as Director for defense strategy and requirements on the National Security Council staff, as Deputy Director of policy planning in the State Department, and in both the military and civilian staffs in the Pentagon. In 2008 she was senior policy advisor on the McCain-Palin presidential campaign.
She teaches in War Studies at King's College London and has previously taught at Stanford University, the United States Military Academy, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and the University of Maryland.
Shatabhisha Shetty
Shatabhisha Shetty is the Deputy Director and co-founder of the European Leadership Network (ELN). Her research is focused on NPT and nuclear ban treaty issues, UK nuclear policy, arms control and nuclear deterrence. She also follows developments at NATO and in the OSCE. Prior to establishing the Eln in 2010, Shata worked at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) in the Nuclear Analysis Program. In 2009 along with former Defence Secretary Des Browne, she established and ran the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation. She has also held posts in the London headquarters of the British Council, the European Commission in Brussels and has worked for members of parliament in Westminster and Holyrood. Moreover, she co-founded and co-chaired WIIS UK.
Shata has a Masters in International Public Policy from University College London and a BSC in Computer Science from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.
Heather Williams
Dr. Heather Williams is a Lecturer in the Centre for Science and Security Studies (CSSS) at King's College London. She is also an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and a Senior Associate Fellow with the European Leadership Network. From 2018 to 2019 Dr. Williams served as a Specialist Advisor to the House of Lords International Relations Committee inquiry into the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and Disarmament. She is also an adjunct Research Staff Member in the Strategy, Forces, and Resources Division of the Institute for Defense Analyses in Alexandria, Virginia, where she has worked since 2008 on U.S. nuclear policy for the U.S. Department of Defense. Until January 2015, Heather was a Research Fellow on Nuclear Weapons Policy at Chatham House and led research on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Humanitarian Impacts of Nuclear Weapons Initiative.
Dr. Williams has a PhD from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, and a BA in International Relations and Russian Studies from Boston University, and an MA in Security Policy Studies from The George Washington University.
Claire Yorke
Dr. Claire Yorke is a Henry A. Kissinger Postdoctoral Fellow at International Security Studies and the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University. Her writing and research explores the role and limitations of empathy and emotions in international affairs, diplomacy, leadership and policy-making. Alongside her research she lectures and teaches at university and has recently designed a professional online course for mid-level managers on ‘Empathy and Emotions in Policy-Making’ with the International School for Government at King’s College London.
She received her PhD in International Relations from the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, and has a Masters from the University of Exeter, and a BA from Lancaster University. Prior to her PhD, Claire worked as Programme Manager of the International Security Research Department at Chatham House (2009-2013) and as a Parliamentary Researcher to a frontbench politician in the Houses of Parliament (2006-2009). In 2014, she was a member of the NATO and Atlantic Council Young Leaders Working Group, reporting to NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on the future of the transatlantic alliance. With Shata Shetty, she co-founded and co-ran Women in International Security UK, organizing events and mentoring opportunities to connect, promote and support women in international affairs, security, and defense. She is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brent Scowcroft Center for International Security at the Atlantic Council in Washington DC, and on the Board of Advisors for Promote Leadership and the Research Advisory Council of the Resolve Network.
You can follow her @ClaireYorke.