Emma Sky

Emma Sky is the founding director of Yale’s International Leadership Center and a Lecturer at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs. She teaches courses on great power competition, grand strategy, and Middle East politics. Her research focuses on conflict resolution, security sector reform, and regional stability in the Middle East and beyond.

Her expertise stems from extensive fieldwork, including roles as political advisor to U.S. and NATO forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, Governorate Coordinator of Kirkuk, and development advisor for Palestinian institutions. She has also worked on poverty elimination and human rights initiatives across the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa.

Sky authored The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq (2015) and In a Time of Monsters: Travelling in a Middle East in Revolt (2019), analyzing post-conflict governance and regional instability. She serves as a trustee of the HALO Trust, a humanitarian NGO clearing landmines globally.

Her courses include GLBL 101: Gateway to Global Affairs, Middle East Politics, and Great Power Competition and Cooperation. Her work bridges academia and practice, emphasizing strategic leadership in volatile contexts.