Heidi Hardt is a nonresident senior fellow at the Transatlantic Security Initiative of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. She is also an associate professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine. Her research expertise includes NATO; transatlantic security; European security; international organizations; collective defense; military operations; gender mainstreaming; women, peace, and security; gender integration; climate security; organizational change; adaptation; knowledge; and learning. Hardt is the author of two books: NATO’s Lessons in Crisis: Institutional Memory in International Organization (Oxford University Press, 2018), and Time to React: The Efficiency of International Organizations in Crisis Response (Oxford University Press, 2014).

Throughout her career, Hardt has interviewed over 250 high-level political and military officials across the Alliance. Her scholarly articles have appeared or are forthcoming in the Journal of Global Security Studies, European Security, Contemporary Security Policy, European Journal of International Relations, International Politics, Review of International Organizations, PLOS One, Journal of Politics, PS: Political Science & Politics, Global Governance, and African Security, as well as in book chapters and other publications. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Fulbright, NATO, Carnegie Endowment, and the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Hardt has also been interviewed by BBC News.

From 2021 to 2022, she was a Council on Foreign Relations international affairs fellow, during which she worked for Congresswoman Katie Porter, Senator Chris Van Hollen, and later at the NATO Desk of the US State Department. In support of NATO’s implementation of WPS, she and Stéfanie von Hlatky received a NATO Science for Peace and Security grant to research, establish, and disseminate training on gender awareness at NATO. Hardt is also a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a trustee of the World Affairs Council of Orange County.