Christine Balling

Christine Balling joined the American Foreign Policy Council as Senior Fellow for Latin American Affairs in May 2015. In 2009, Ms. Balling founded Fundación ECCO, a Colombian registered nonprofit organization that promoted democracy and youth leadership in areas of conflict. From 2013 to 2014, Ms. Balling served as a Subject Matter Expert to the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command-South (SOCSOUTH) and partnered with U.S. Army Civil Affairs teams in Colombia. In 2016 and 2017, Ms. Balling organized and led two solo expeditions to Iraqi Kurdistan to deliver humanitarian aid and embed with a company of female Yazidi peshmerga soldiers who survived the 2014 genocide by ISIS.

Ms. Balling’s work has appeared in Foreign Affairs, The National Interest and The Hill, among other publications. She holds an Executive MA in National Security Affairs at the Institute of World Politics, where she currently serves as a faculty member and the Senior Vice President for Professional Affiliations.