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Heather Ashby, Ph.D.

Senior Program Officer, Russia and Europe Center

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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 senior program officer for the Center for Russia and Europe at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Dr. Ashby joined USIP after seven years with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where she worked at the intersection of homeland security and international affairs. She also focused on U.S.-Russia relations at DHS.

Her research interests include Russia’s activities in the Global South, particularly in Africa. Dr. Ashby researches and publishes on Russia’s involvement in conflict zones and efforts to wield influence in the Global South through kinetic and non-kinetic means. She also supports USIP’s work on Ukraine and strategic competition. 

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

Publications By Heather

What You Need to Know About Russia’s New Foreign Policy Concept

What You Need to Know About Russia’s New Foreign Policy Concept

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

By: Heather Ashby, Ph.D.;  Mary Glantz, Ph.D.

On March 31, Russia released a new “foreign policy concept,” articulating Moscow’s global priorities and focus for the future. The Kremlin’s last foreign policy concept was released in 2016, two years after its invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. In the years since, Moscow has demonstrated its increasing disdain for the rules-based international order and antagonism toward the United States and its European NATO partners. The 2023 document is Russia’s first comprehensive foreign policy statement since its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, revealing how Moscow sees the war a year later and its vision for an emergent multipolar world.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Global Policy

Xi and Putin Flaunt Deepening Ties, Flout the U.S.-led Order

Xi and Putin Flaunt Deepening Ties, Flout the U.S.-led Order

Friday, March 24, 2023

By: Heather Ashby, Ph.D.;  Mary Glantz, Ph.D.;  Jennifer Staats, Ph.D.;  Andrew Scobell, Ph.D.

Thirteen months after Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, Moscow and Beijing are continuing to deepen their ties even as China has sought to portray itself as a neutral player in the war. This week’s summit between Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin comes on the heels of the International Criminal Court’s warrant for Putin for war crimes. For Putin, the summit demonstrated that despite Western sanction and opprobrium, Russia is not an isolated pariah state. Meanwhile, Xi used the summit to further the image he has tried to burnish of Beijing as a peacemaker and advance his vision of an alternative multilateral order, breaking away from the U.S.-led system.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Global Policy

How the ICC’s Warrant for Putin Could Impact the Ukraine War

How the ICC’s Warrant for Putin Could Impact the Ukraine War

Thursday, March 23, 2023

By: Heather Ashby, Ph.D.;  Lauren Baillie;  Mary Glantz, Ph.D.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced last Friday that it had issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova. According to a statement issued by the ICC, Putin and Lvova-Belova are alleged to have committed the war crimes of “unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation” beginning in at least February 24, 2022. USIP’s Lauren Baillie, Heather Ashby and Mary Glantz discuss the impacts of these warrants on Putin and on the war in Ukraine.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Justice, Security & Rule of Law

Why Georgians Are Protesting Against Russian Influence

Why Georgians Are Protesting Against Russian Influence

Thursday, March 23, 2023

By: Heather Ashby, Ph.D.;  Manon Fuchs

Earlier this month, the ruling Georgian Dream party withdrew proposed “foreign agent” bills that have been a source of contestation in the country, particularly over the last year. A diverse coalition of Georgians hit the streets to protest these bills, which they said would be a blow to Georgia’s democracy and undercut its efforts to be a candidate for European Union membership. Just as Ukrainians are resisting Russia’s illegal invasion, these Georgian protesters fear growing Russian influence in their country, which is already partly occupied by Russia. The bills’ collapse in the Georgian parliament revealed the power of civil society resistance and the continued fight within the country for European integration and democracy.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Democracy & Governance

Ukraine’s Africa Visit Shows Its Fight Against Russia Goes Beyond the Battlefield

Ukraine’s Africa Visit Shows Its Fight Against Russia Goes Beyond the Battlefield

Thursday, November 3, 2022

By: Heather Ashby, Ph.D.

In the days before Russia’s bombing escalation in Ukraine in early October, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was visiting Africa in a bid to garner support and counter Moscow’s propaganda about the war. While much of the Western world has rallied around Ukraine, African states have largely avoided taking sides. For its part, Russia has been on a diplomatic offensive in much of the Global South, lobbying African, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries to not join international sanctions and condemnation against Moscow. Indeed, Ukraine’s fight against Russia is not only taking place on the battlefield, but also through an ambitious and needed international diplomacy efforts that extends from Europe to the Global South.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Global Policy

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