Dr Ashley Thomas Lenihan is the Head of Policy & Engagement at the British Academy of Management, a Senior Policy Advisor at the Academy of Social Sciences and its Campaign for Social Science, a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for International Studies at the London School of Economics (LSE), and an Associate at LSE’s foreign policy think tank, LSE IDEAS.  Her primary research focuses on the relationship between foreign direct investment and national security from an international relations perspective.

Selected publications in this area include her book Balancing Power without Weapons: State Intervention into Cross-Border Mergers & Acquisitions (Cambridge University Press, 2018) and ‘Sovereign Wealth Funds and the Acquisition of Power‘ (New Political Economy, 2014). She is currently working on a project examining national security and foreign direct investment in the digital era.

Dr Lenihan’s secondary research looks at the relationship between research and the policymaking process. Selected co-edited books in this area include Sustaining Natural Resources in a Changing Environment (Routledge, 2018) and International and Interdisciplinary Insights into Evidence and Policy (Routledge, 2016).

Dr Lenihan is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in the United States, and a member of the Parliamentary & Scientific Committee in the UK. She was previously a Senior Fellow with the Institute for Law, Science & Global Security at Georgetown University, and began her career as an investment banking analyst (focused on Aerospace and Defense M&A) with Credit Suisse First Boston in London. She received her Ph.D. in Government, and her B.S. in Foreign Service, from Georgetown University.

Email: a.lenihan@lse.ac.uk