Eleanor (Freund) Atkins is a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Her research examines Chinese foreign policy, with a focus on the intersection of diplomatic statecraft and military power. At CFR she is investigating China’s efforts to develop a survivable sea-based nuclear deterrent

Atkins a nonresident fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR). Her previous fellowships include appointments as a predoctoral fellow in the International Security Program at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, a Morgenthau grand strategy fellow at the University of Notre Dame, a peace scholar fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace, and a Chinese language fellow with NBR. She also worked as a research assistant and associate at the Belfer Center and as a James C. Gaither junior fellow in the China Studies Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 

Atkins holds a BA in political science with highest honors from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MA in global affairs from Tsinghua University, where she was a Schwarzman scholar. She received her PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2025, with concentrations in security studies and international relations. Her dissertation, which she is currently developing into a book, analyzes variation in China’s alliances and security partnerships.