Brianne Todd

Brianne Todd serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor with the Center for Security Studies in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Additionally, she serves as a professor of practice at the U.S. Department of Defense’s Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, where she leads security cooperation initiatives and strategic engagement with military officers and government officials from Central Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. She is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and a distinguished policy practitioner and scholar specializing in U.S. foreign policy and regional security issues in Central Asia.

Todd previously served as Director for Central Asian Affairs at the National Security Council from 2023-2025, where she coordinated U.S. policy across the diplomatic, economic, defense, and intelligence lines of effort. Her leadership helped advance U.S. strategic objectives in a complex and evolving regional landscape, most notably through the first-ever C5+1 Leaders’ Summit. Previously, she also held key roles at the U.S. Department of State and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, earning commendations for her contributions to US policy on Central Asia and Afghanistan.

With a deep commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship and professional engagement, Todd is a lifetime member of the Central Eurasian Studies Society and active in organizations such as the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs, the Women’s Foreign Policy Group, and Women in Defense.