CSIS Names Emily Benson Director of Project on Trade and Technology

WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 15, 2023 – The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) today announced that Emily Benson has been named director of the Center’s Project on Trade and Technology. This new project is strategically designed to advance new trade policy approaches that encourage deeper alignment on technology issues with foreign partners. 

Benson, who joined CSIS’s Scholl Chair in International Business in 2021, has emerged as one of the top U.S. analysts on transatlantic trade issues, ranging from technology and export controls to climate change and supply chain security. Benson’s recent research has included evaluating the trilateral arrangement on semiconductor export controls between the United States, Japan, and the Netherlands, and extensive work on carbon border adjustment mechanisms and broader green industrial strategy.

Under Benson’s leadership, the Project on Trade and Technology will provide scholarly thought-leadership on developing a new cooperative paradigm among the U.S. and its allies and partners. The project will work collaboratively across CSIS, including with the Wadhwani Center for AI and Advanced Technologies, the Pritzker Chair, and the Scholl Chair for International Business, to develop holistic policy solutions to the most complex trade and technology issues facing the international community.

“Emily’s work at the intersection of trade and technology is unparalleled,” said John Hamre, CSIS president and CEO. “With the emergence and ubiquity of advanced technologies, public policies on trade and technology are inextricably linked. Emily’s research on these complex issues has demonstrated her unique capacity to develop innovative and creative policy solutions that lead to long-term benefits for the United States and its partners.”

Prior to joining CSIS, Benson managed transatlantic legislative relations at a European foundation, focusing on trade relations and emerging technologies. Benson also worked to combat money laundering via the illicit flow of art from conflict zones and spent several years at an international law firm focused on sanctions and export controls.

In addition to her new role as director of the Project on Trade and Technology, Benson will continue to serve as a senior fellow with the Scholl Chair for International Business.

For media inquiries, please contact Andrew Schwartz (aschwartz@csis.org) or Paige Montfort (pmontfort@csis.org).

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organization dedicated to advancing practical ideas to address the world’s greatest challenges.