Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook

Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook is a German-American political scientist and Senior Advisor at the Bertelsmann Stiftung in Berlin, Germany. Her research focuses on transatlantic relations, geopolitics and the impact of technology on foreign policy making. She is a frequent contributor to European and American broadsheets and media, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, and advises foreign ministries across Europe and the Americas on digitalization strategies.

Previously, she served as director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). For over a decade prior, Cathryn served as the executive director of the Future of Diplomacy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The research program, which she co-founded with the current U.S. Ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, examines the challenges to negotiation and statecraft in the 21st century, including the impact of technology on foreign policy. In addition, Cathryn directed a Harvard research program on Europe and transatlantic relations from 2018 to 2021 and on India and South Asia from 2011 to 2018.

Before that, she served on the management board of the European Policy Centre (EPC) in Brussels and worked as both a consultant and senior journalist at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in France and China. She began her career as a television journalist at CNN International in Atlanta and London and serving as parliamentary policy advisor to the European Parliament and the UK House of Commons. She holds degrees from the Harvard Kennedy School (MPA, 2010), the London School of Economics (MSc, 2002) and Brown University, (BA w Honors, 1999) and is both a Truman and an Eisenhower Fellow. She serves on several non-profit boards and advisory councils.