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United States Institute of Peace

Heather Ashby, Ph.D.

Associate Director, Disinformation, Propaganda and Artificial Intelligence

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Please submit all media inquiries to interviews@usip.org or call 202.429.3869.

For all other inquiries, please call 202.457.1700

Heather Ashby is the associate director for USIP’s program on disinformation, propaganda and artificial intelligence.

Dr. Ashby joined USIP after seven years with the Department of Homeland Security, where she worked at the intersection of homeland security and international affairs. She also focused on U.S.-Russia relations.

Her research interests include misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation, as well as hate speech, propaganda, artificial intelligence, and digital security and safety. Dr. Ashby also researches and publishes on Russian activities in the Global South.

Dr. Ashby received her doctorate from the University of Southern California in 2014.

Publications By Heather

What BRICS Expansion Means for the Bloc’s Founding Members

What BRICS Expansion Means for the Bloc’s Founding Members

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

By: Heather Ashby, Ph.D.;  Daniel Markey, Ph.D.;  Kirk Randolph;  Kirtika Sharad;  Henry Tugendhat;  Aly Verjee

After more than 40 countries expressed interest in joining, the question of whether BRICS would admit new members was finally answered during the group’s summit last week. Despite pre-summit reports of division over the potential expansion, leaders from the five-nation bloc announced that Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) would join the group starting in 2024.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Global Policy

Russia’s Africa Summit — and a Future for Wagner

Russia’s Africa Summit — and a Future for Wagner

Thursday, August 3, 2023

By: Heather Ashby, Ph.D.;  James Rupert;  Kirtika Sharad

Ever since Russia’s Wagner mercenary group jolted Vladimir Putin’s regime with its brief mutiny in Russia, foggy uncertainty has surrounded Wagner’s future roles — whether domestically, as part of Putin’s web of armed forces, as a fighting force in Ukraine, or as a Kremlin tool of influence and profit in Africa. The past week offers the most prominent sign yet of how Wagner’s flamboyant chief, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, is pressing to retain an African role. While mostly shoved out of public view, Prigozhin was able to appear at Putin’s Russia-Africa Summit to meet African contacts and re-declare his relevance.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Global Policy

Russia’s Wagner Uprising Will Force a Kremlin Reshuffle in Africa

Russia’s Wagner Uprising Will Force a Kremlin Reshuffle in Africa

Thursday, July 13, 2023

By: Heather Ashby, Ph.D.;  Joseph Sany, Ph.D.

Three weeks after Russia’s Wagner Group mounted an armed uprising against authorities in Moscow, the still-swirling fallout will force changes in the mercenary group’s operations in Africa. The open outbreak of conflict among rival armed factions that Vladimir Putin sponsors as props of his autocratic regime will now force him to find new managers for his strategy of seeking influence and resources through strongmen and warlords in unstable African countries. These developments open an opportunity for Africans and the West to better illuminate Russia’s corrupt, often brutal methods in Africa, and their consequences.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Global Policy

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