Saskia Brechenmacher

Saskia Brechenmacher is a senior fellow in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her research examines democratic erosion, civic mobilization, and gender politics in the United States and globally. Her writing has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The National Interest, Just Security, and openDemocracy, among other outlets. She is the coauthor, with Katherine Mann, of “Aiding Empowerment: Democracy Promotion and Gender Equality in Politics” (Oxford University Press, 2024). Before joining Carnegie, she held research and policy positions at the World Peace Foundation, Carnegie Europe, and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. She currently serves on the board of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, an organization defending civic freedoms globally. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Cambridge, where she studied as a Gates Cambridge Scholar.