CSIS Australia Chair Names Anna Fifield Non-Resident Fellow

WASHINGTON, DC – April 6, 2026 – The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) today announced that Anna Fifield has been appointed as a non-resident fellow with the CSIS Australia Chair.

“We are thrilled to welcome Anna to CSIS as a non-resident fellow,” said Charles Edel, senior adviser and Australia Chair. “A distinguished journalist with decades of experience reporting from every corner of the Indo-Pacific, Anna brings an unrivaled depth of regional expertise to our team. Her sharp analysis and nuanced understanding of geopolitical shifts will be indispensable as we examine New Zealand’s evolving role within an increasingly turbulent era.”

Fifield is a New Zealand journalist and foreign affairs analyst with over two decades of experience as a foreign correspondent for the Washington Post and Financial Times. She has reported across Asia, the Middle East, and the United States, and served as the Washington Post’s Asia-Pacific editor. Fifield also previously served as editor at the Dominion Post, the capital city newspaper in Wellington, New Zealand. 

“Over more than 20 years as a foreign correspondent, I regularly turned to CSIS experts for their sharp analysis and smart insights. I'm thrilled to now be contributing to this top-notch institution,” said Fifield.

Fifield was a Nieman journalism fellow at Harvard University, studying how change happens in closed societies, and won Stanford University’s Shorenstein Prize for excellence in reporting on Asia. Her book about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, The Great Successor, has been translated into 24 languages. She holds a BA in English language and literature from Victoria University of Wellington and a postgraduate diploma in journalism from Canterbury University.

At CSIS, Fifield will support the Australia Chair as it works to deepen engagement on New Zealand geopolitics and the U.S.-New Zealand partnership. Housed within the Center’s Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department, the CSIS Australia Chair has, since its creation in 2021, served as the premier platform in Washington, D.C., for high-level policy discussions on Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific. To learn more and read the latest analyses from Australia Chair scholars, visit here.

For media inquiries, please contact Sofia Chavez at [email protected].