Amanda J. Rothschild, Ph.D.
Senior Policy Director, Vandenberg Coalition
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security
Twitter: @Rothschild_AJ
Amanda J. Rothschild is a national security expert and former presidential speechwriter. She currently serves as the Senior Policy Director of the Vandenberg Coalition, overseeing the organization’s policy priorities and activities. She is also a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, where her work focuses on U.S. grand strategy and great power competition with China and Russia.
Prior to these roles, Rothschild served in several senior positions in the executive branch, as Senior Advisor on the Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State and as a Special Assistant to the President and the Senior National Security Speechwriter at the White House. Her tenure at the White House and National Security Council included traveling with the president for international engagements and foreign policy meetings, including the 2017 Asia Trip, U.N. meetings, the World Economic Forum, NATO, G20, and G7 meetings, State Visits abroad, and the Helsinki, Singapore, and Hanoi Summits. She also served as a chief speechwriter to several U.S. National Security Advisers. She is a recipient of the National Security Council’s Outstanding Service Award and received a presidential “Certificate of Appreciation” for her service during the 2018 U.S. -North Korea Summit in Singapore.
Rothschild's research and commentary on international and political affairs have appeared in scholarly and popular outlets, including International Security, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the National Interest, Newsweek, the New York Times, the New York Sun, Forbes, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Hill, and the Washington Examiner.
Rothschild received her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was a member of the MIT Security Studies Program, and she completed predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. While completing her doctoral studies, Rothschild received the International Studies Association's Patricia Weitsman Award, which recognizes the best research paper on any aspect of international security studies written by a graduate student. To learn more about her doctoral research, see Sarah Baldwin's profile for MIT, "The Courage to Dissent: Political Science Meets Personal History," or Casey Campbell's for the Belfer Center, "Investigating U.S. Debate and Response to Mass Killings."
Rothschild received her B.A., summa cum laude, in Political Science from Boston College, where she was a member of the Division I women's ice hockey team and a Rhodes Scholar Finalist (Final Selection Round, District 2 MA/CT). At commencement, she received the Finneran Commencement Award, the College of Arts and Sciences' highest award, for the senior who has “achieved outstanding success in studies, while also devoting time and talents to other activities for the enrichment of the College.” She also received the Donald S. Carlisle Award for outstanding achievement in political science and the John McCarthy S.J. Award for the most distinguished "Scholar of the College" thesis in the social sciences. As a student-athlete, she was twice named to the six-player Division I Hockey East Academic All-Star Team in the goaltender's position.
Senior Policy Director, Vandenberg Coalition
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security
Twitter: @Rothschild_AJ
Amanda J. Rothschild is a national security expert and former presidential speechwriter. She currently serves as the Senior Policy Director of the Vandenberg Coalition, overseeing the organization’s policy priorities and activities. She is also a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, where her work focuses on U.S. grand strategy and great power competition with China and Russia.
Prior to these roles, Rothschild served in several senior positions in the executive branch, as Senior Advisor on the Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State and as a Special Assistant to the President and the Senior National Security Speechwriter at the White House. Her tenure at the White House and National Security Council included traveling with the president for international engagements and foreign policy meetings, including the 2017 Asia Trip, U.N. meetings, the World Economic Forum, NATO, G20, and G7 meetings, State Visits abroad, and the Helsinki, Singapore, and Hanoi Summits. She also served as a chief speechwriter to several U.S. National Security Advisers. She is a recipient of the National Security Council’s Outstanding Service Award and received a presidential “Certificate of Appreciation” for her service during the 2018 U.S. -North Korea Summit in Singapore.
Rothschild's research and commentary on international and political affairs have appeared in scholarly and popular outlets, including International Security, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the National Interest, Newsweek, the New York Times, the New York Sun, Forbes, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Hill, and the Washington Examiner.
Rothschild received her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was a member of the MIT Security Studies Program, and she completed predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. While completing her doctoral studies, Rothschild received the International Studies Association's Patricia Weitsman Award, which recognizes the best research paper on any aspect of international security studies written by a graduate student. To learn more about her doctoral research, see Sarah Baldwin's profile for MIT, "The Courage to Dissent: Political Science Meets Personal History," or Casey Campbell's for the Belfer Center, "Investigating U.S. Debate and Response to Mass Killings."
Rothschild received her B.A., summa cum laude, in Political Science from Boston College, where she was a member of the Division I women's ice hockey team and a Rhodes Scholar Finalist (Final Selection Round, District 2 MA/CT). At commencement, she received the Finneran Commencement Award, the College of Arts and Sciences' highest award, for the senior who has “achieved outstanding success in studies, while also devoting time and talents to other activities for the enrichment of the College.” She also received the Donald S. Carlisle Award for outstanding achievement in political science and the John McCarthy S.J. Award for the most distinguished "Scholar of the College" thesis in the social sciences. As a student-athlete, she was twice named to the six-player Division I Hockey East Academic All-Star Team in the goaltender's position.