Cecily Brewer

Cecily Brewer is director of research and operations for the Future of American Strategy initiative at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). She is a foreign policy strategist with experience translating future-oriented strategic planning into policy development and implementation. Her work focuses on American statecraft, strategic risk, peace and security, and Africa.

Prior to joining CFR, Brewer was a nonresident scholar in the American Statecraft program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace where she researched how the United States can better use negotiation and mediation as strategic capacities to advance American foreign policy. Brewer was previously a senior expert with the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) where she focused on peace processes and mediation, negotiation training, and policy simulations.

In government, Brewer spent more than fifteen years as a civil servant at the U.S. Department of State and the White House. She served as the U.S. Vice President’s foreign policy advisor for Africa and global counter-terrorism. She helped craft and implement a forward-looking U.S. strategy toward Africa, including work on digital public-private partnerships, strategic competitors’ expanding presence, and complex conflicts. As a member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning staff (S/P), she worked to establish new structures to better integrate future strategic risk and opportunity into policy planning. Earlier in her career, Brewer advised four special envoys and representatives, served on the U.S. mediation team for Sudan-South Sudan negotiations, and helped develop U.S. strategies for the Sahel, Burma, and Afghanistan. She served at seven U.S. embassies and consulates across Africa, Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

Brewer grew up in West Lafayette, Indiana, and holds a BA from Amherst College and an MA from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).