Dr Eleni Ekmektsioglou

Policy Fellow
Risk Reduction | Emerging Technologies | Nuclear Strategy

Dr. Eleni Ekmektsioglou is a Policy Fellow and Project Manager with BASIC’s Risk Reduction Programme, where she leads a project in collaboration with the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) on the impact of emerging technologies on the future of the SSBN and the undersea nuclear deterrent.

Before joining BASIC, Eleni was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Technology and International Security with UC-IGCC and the U.S. National Labs for Nuclear Weapons (LANL and LLNL). Her PhD examined the reasons behind the variation in military organisations’ reactions to emerging technologies, including cases such as adaptation, rejection, and/or countering. Her research sheds light on the determinants behind military organisations’ assessments and evaluations of emerging technologies, examining a variety of historical and contemporary case studies, such as the submarine and the aircraft carrier before WWII, hypersonic weapons, and Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD).

Eleni completed a predoctoral fellowship at George Washington University’s Institute for Security and Conflict Studies (ISCS) while a member of a number of policy and academic networks, such as SWAMOS, Bridging the Gap, and APSIA. Before she started her Ph.D., she worked for the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) in Paris on a research project that looked at transatlantic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. She was also a Handa Fellow at Pacific Forum CSIS in Honolulu, doing research on China’s nuclear and naval strategy.

Eleni is a member of IFRI’s (Institut Francais des Relations Internationales) Nuclear Strategy Network and of CSIS’ mid-career cadre for nuclear professionals. She is furthermore the co-founder of the Emerging Scholars on Emerging Technologies network.

Eleni has published both peer-reviewed articles and opinion pieces in journals such as the Pacific Review, the Strategic Studies Quarterly, the National Interest, and the Diplomat Magazine. She holds a Master’s degree from the War Studies Department at King’s College London.

Contact Eleni