lindsey ford
Senior Fellow
Lindsey Ford
HIGHLIGHTS
2024-2025: Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for South Asia, National Security Council
2021-2024: Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia
Lindsey Ford is a Senior Fellow at ORF America where she leads the program on foreign policy and security. She is a leading expert on Indo-Pacific security issues with two decades of experience serving inside and outside of government, including at the White House and the Department of Defense.
Most recently, Ford served as the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for South Asia at the National Security Council from 2024-2025. As President Biden’s senior advisor on South Asia policy, Ford oversaw the establishment of a new U.S.-India initiative on green energy supply chains, and managed bilateral negotiations related to strategic trade and technology cooperation.
Prior to her work on the National Security Council, Ford served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia from 2021-2024, where she managed all aspects of bilateral defense relations with nineteen Indo-Pacific nations. During this time, she oversaw the establishment of multiple innovations in U.S-India defense ties, including concluding the first U.S.- India Roadmap for Defense Industrial Cooperation, and launching a new defense innovation bridge—the India-U.S. Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS X). Throughout her government career, Ford has advised five Secretaries of Defense and has been awarded multiple recognitions, including the Medals for Outstanding Public Service and Exceptional Public Service.
Beyond her government service, Ford has been a senior researcher at the Brookings Institution and the Asia Society Policy Institute, and her analysis has been featured in multiple outlets, including the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, MSNBC, and Bloomberg. She currently lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, two children, and an unruly dog.
