CFR Welcomes Lori Esposito Murray as Senior Fellow for National Security and Managing Director of CEO Programs

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is pleased to welcome Lori Esposito Murray back as senior fellow for national security and managing director of CEO programs. Murray previously served as an adjunct senior fellow at CFR in the national security and defense program, focusing on nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and arms control issues.

Murray will research, write, and speak on issues related to nuclear strategy, nuclear weapons, and arms control. She will also spearhead an expanded program of CEO and C-suite focused events and communications for CFR’s member companies. 

“We are very pleased to welcome Lori back to the Council. Her range of expertise working on national security issues under Democratic and Republican administrations, and her collaborations with the private sector, make her a perfect fit for this newly expanded role that spans CFR’s think tank and corporate engagements programs,” said CFR President Michael Froman. 

Prior to joining CFR, Murray served as the president of the Committee for Economic Development, the nonpartisan, nonprofit public policy center of The Conference Board, whose storied history includes developing the Marshall Plan for Europe. Previously, she held the distinguished national security chair at the U.S. Naval Academy.  

She also served as president and CEO of the World Affairs Councils of America, the nation’s largest nonpartisan and nonprofit grassroots organization dedicated to educating and engaging the U.S. public on global issues, and now serves as president emeritus. 

Murray was special advisor to President Bill Clinton on the Chemical Weapons Convention, where she helped to steer the bipartisan approval of the convention. Murray also served as the assistant director for multilateral affairs at the State Department’s U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. 

She previously worked for the Department of Defense’s Federal Advisory Committee on Gender-Integrated Training in the Military and Related Issues, was a consultant to President George W. Bush’s bipartisan Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction and U.S. Intelligence Capabilities, and was a national security advisor to Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-KS). 

Murray received her BA from Yale University and her PhD from the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.