Emma Sky is the founding Director of Yale University’s International Leadership Center and a Lecturer at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, where she teaches global affairs, grand strategy, great power competition and cooperation, and Middle East politics.
A diplomat and conflict-resolution expert, she has worked extensively at the intersection of international security, governance, development, and peacebuilding. She served as political advisor to the Commanding General of U.S. Forces in Iraq, development advisor to NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, political advisor to the U.S. Security Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, and Governorate Coordinator of Kirkuk. She also spent a decade in the Palestinian territories supporting institution-building and Israeli-Palestinian coexistence.
Her international work has also addressed poverty reduction, human rights, access to justice, public administration and security-sector reform, and conflict resolution across the Middle East, South Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Her experience brings a strong perspective on diplomacy, governance, human security, leadership, and institution-building in complex and conflict-affected settings.