Who We Are
Analytical leadership to navigate complex strategic environments
The directors of the Competitive Strategies Consortium bring decades of multidisciplinary expertise across the disciplines of history, management, international politics, military theory, and strategic studies. Operating as an independent collective, we provide the steady analytical leadership required to navigate complex strategic environments.
Ashlyn Hand
Partner, Whalen Hand Consulting
Dr. Hand is Partner and Co-Founder of Whalen Hand Consulting, a strategy consultancy focused on long-range strategic analysis and applied history. She is also an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Political Science and Assistant Director of the Center for Presidential History at SMU, as well as a Visiting Fellow at the Wilson Center. Her research focuses on the intersection of international security, human rights, and foreign policy, with particular attention to the role of ideas, institutions, and political leadership in shaping international affairs. She is the author of Prioritizing Faith: International Religious Freedom and U.S. Foreign Policy (NYU Press, 2025). She earned her Ph.D. from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin in 2021 and previously held fellowships with the America in the World Consortium at Johns Hopkins SAIS and Duke University. Her work has appeared in Foreign Policy, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, and the Journal of Church and State. She is also a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Areas of Expertise
Grand Strategy and Net Assessment
Religion, Security, and Human Rights
Stephanie Papa
Partner, StrateVarious, Inc.
Ms. Papa is Partner and Head of Washington, DC Operations at StrateVarious, Inc., a strategy consultancy that focuses on strategic competition, the assessment of competitors and adversaries, and the future security environment. She is also a Fellow at the Johns Hopkins SAIS Foreign Policy Institute (FPI). Previously, she was the first executive director of the Andrew W. Marshall Foundation, which she helped establish to support emerging analysts in defense and national security. She also held research design roles at SAIS, where she led programs on the strategic environment and co-created the Diplomatic Capacity Index, FPI’s flagship effort to measure diplomacy as a component of national power and potential. She began her work in net assessment at SAIC, supporting the U.S. Office of Net Assessment as assistant to its founding Director, Andrew W. Marshall, and as a strategic analyst specializing in nuclear proliferation, deterrence, and force posture. She holds an MA from Johns Hopkins SAIS.
Areas of Expertise
Net Assessment History and Practice
Institution- and Programme-Building
Analyst Development and Training
Measurement and Assessment of National Power
Strategic Narratives and Net Assessment
Defense Establishment Politics and Practices
Nina Silove
Owner, Silove Strategy Consulting GmbH
Dr. Silove is an independent strategy consultant and a Fellow at the Centre for Statecraft & National Security in the Department of War Studies at King's College London. She is also a Research Fellow at the Center for International Security at the Hertie School in Berlin. She has held fellowships at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University and the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. Previously, she was appointed to the position of Lecturer (continuing/tenure-equivalent) at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University, where she was also the Convenor of the doctoral program. She returned to Europe to serve as a Senior Researcher at the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zürich and establish her consultancy practice. Her research appears in some of the world’s top security studies journals and is taught in university programs worldwide. As a consultant, she has worked with numerous allies and partners for over a decade. She holds a DPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford.
Organization and Process Design
Defense Analysis Methods and Tools
Partner, Whalen Hand Consulting
Military Interventions, Civil Wars, and Theories of Conflict
Interdisciplinary Research and Applied History
Bureaucratic Politics and Decision-Making
Interdisciplinary Research and Applied History
Areas of Expertise
Net Assessment History and Practice
Strategy Design and Implementation
Emily Whalen
Dr. Whalen is Partner at and Co-Founder of Whalen Hand Consulting, a strategy consultancy that focuses on long-range strategic analysis and applied history. She is also a Fellow at the Centre for Statecraft & National Security in the Department of War Studies at King's College London. Previously, she was a visiting scholar at Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania and a Non-Resident Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Dr. Whalen has held fellowships at the Clements Center for National Security, Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and Yale University’s International Security Studies Program. She was an affiliated scholar at the American University of Beirut’s Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies. Dr. Whalen has also worked as an historical consultant for the EastWest Institute. Her writing appears in several online publications, including the Oxford Research Encyclopedia, Foreign Policy, Task and Purpose, Lawfare, H-Diplo, and Engelsberg Ideas. Her first book on U.S. intervention in the Lebanese civil war is forthcoming from Columbia University Press. She holds a PhD in history from the University of Texas at Austin.
Areas of Expertise
