Andrea Yaffe is a nonresident senior fellow in the Forward Defense program of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.
Yaffe is a national security and defense policy leader with more than two decades of experience across the US government and private sector, including senior roles at the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, Congress, and private-sector consulting. She currently serves as senior director for Washington operations at AV Inc., where she advises on advancing the company’s space and directed energy priorities with the US government. She previously served as deputy director of the Defense Technology Security Administration, acting principal deputy assistant secretary of defense and senior advisor in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy, and director for space policy at the National Security Council.
Throughout her career, Yaffe has led high-level policy development and interagency coordination on space policy, missile defense, nuclear deterrence, countering weapons of mass destruction, export controls, and foreign defense cooperation. She has testified before Congress, led crisis-response efforts on national security space issues, and helped shape major defense policy and organizational reforms. Yaffe holds an MA in security policy studies from George Washington University and a BA in international relations from Johns Hopkins University. Her awards include the Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Award and multiple Office of the Secretary of Defense Medals for Exceptional Civilian Service.