Christine Fair

Dr. C. Christine Fair is a Professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Her expertise spans political and military affairs in South Asia, with a focus on Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. She previously held roles at the RAND Corporation, UNAMA, and USIP, and has been a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow. Her research addresses militant groups like Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, counterinsurgency strategies, and South Asian geopolitical dynamics.

Education: PhD and MA from the University of Chicago’s Department of South Asian Languages and Civilization, and a BS from the same university. She speaks Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi fluently.

Research Interests: Dr. Fair examines South Asian security challenges, including Pakistan’s military strategies, Islamist terrorism, and ethnic conflicts. Her work combines qualitative and quantitative methods, analyzing texts and public opinion data to understand militant recruitment and state responses to extremism.

Key Publications: Includes Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army’s Way of War (Oxford UP), In Their Own Words: Understanding Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (Oxford UP), and numerous articles on nuclear policy, Balochistan separatism, and Hindu nationalism’s political impact.

Awards: She holds the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellowship (2017) and has contributed to policy debates via media outlets like the BBC, CNN, and Foreign Affairs.

Labs/Teams: Active in Georgetown’s Security Studies Program, collaborating with scholars on South Asia’s military, political, and societal challenges.