Dr. Amy Searight has a wealth of experience in Asia policy — spanning defense, diplomacy, development, and economics — in both government and academia. As Vriens & Partners’ Senior Advisor based in Washington DC, Dr. Searight supports the firm’s business development and multi-sectoral client advisory work across the region. In addition to her Vriens & Partners’ role, Dr. Searight is a nonresident senior fellow in the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, as well as the Sol M. Linowitz Visiting Professor of International Affairs at Hamilton College for the spring 2025 semester.
From 2016 to 2020, Dr. Searight served as Senior Advisor and Director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Before joining CSIS, Dr. Searight served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2014 to 2016. Prior to that appointment, she served as Principal Director for East Asian Security at the U.S. Department of Defense and as Senior Advisor for Asia at the U.S. Agency for International Development. She has also served on the policy planning staff and as special advisor for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation in the State Department as a Council on Foreign Relations international affairs fellow.
Before entering government, Dr. Searight was an assistant professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, where she taught international relations of Asia and directed the mid-career master’s program in international policy and practice. She was also an assistant professor at Northwestern University and a postdoctoral fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.
Dr. Searight holds a PhD in Political Science and MA in East Asian Studies from Stanford University. She graduated magna cum laude from Williams College with a BA in political economy.
