Ashley Thomas Lenihan

Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service, Faculty Member

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Dr. Ashley Thomas Lenihan is a Professor of the Practice of International Affairs and Deputy Director of the MSFS Program. She is an expert on economic statecraft, foreign investment, and national security, and author of Balancing Power without Weapons. Her policy work in the U.K. and Europe focuses on improving the impact of research on policymaking, and she regularly provides testimony to the U.K. Parliament and consults for public and private sector bodies internationally. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an individual member of the U.K.’s Parliamentary & Scientific Committee.

Ashley was previously the Head of Policy & Engagement at the British Academy of Management (BAM), a Senior Policy Advisor at the Academy of Social Sciences and its Campaign for Social Science, and a Senior Fellow at the Legatum Institute. She was also an Associate at the foreign policy think tank LSE IDEAS, and a non-resident Fellow at the Centre for International Studies at the London School of Economics (LSE). She has taught at SOAS, University of London and currently teaches MSFS students at Georgetown. She began her career as an investment banking analyst at DLJ/CSFB, and obtained her BSFS and Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University.

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Books by Ashley Thomas Lenihan

Balancing Power without Weapons: State Intervention into Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions

Cambridge University Press - Available Open Access at: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316855430, 2018

Why do states block some foreign direct investment on national security grounds even when it orig... more Why do states block some foreign direct investment on national security grounds even when it originates from within their own security community? Government intervention into foreign takeovers of domestic companies is on the rise, and many observers find it surprising that states engage in such behaviour not only against their strategic and military competitors, but also against their closest allies. Ashley Lenihan argues that such puzzling behaviour can be explained by recognizing that states use intervention into cross-border mergers and acquisitions as a tool of statecraft to internally balance the economic and military power of other states through non-military means. This book tests this theory using quantitative and qualitative analysis of transactions in the United States, Russia, China, and fifteen European Union states. It deepens our understanding of why states intervene in foreign takeovers, the relationship between interdependence and conflict, the limits of globalization, and how states are balancing power in new ways.

Sustaining Natural Resources in a Changing Environment

Routledge, 2018

International and Interdisciplinary Insights into Evidence and Policy

Routledge, 2016

Contributors to this highly original book address the many questions raised by researchers and po... more Contributors to this highly original book address the many questions raised by researchers and policymakers about the complex and often uneasy relationship between evidence and policy from an international and interdisciplinary perspective. They explore both the institutions acting as evidence brokers and the different methods used to collect, assess and use evidence in a variety of national and international settings, by drawing on their experience of working in international contexts and in different disciplinary and policy environments, and in some cases analysing their own involvement in the evidence-based policy process. The policy areas covered range from national and state level economic and social policies more generally to specific areas of intervention, such as EU bio-fuels targets, the Active Ageing Index, mental health and media, the construction of second-language learning policies, microfinance and alcohol policy. The authors highlight the strengths and weaknesses, the use and abuse, or successes and failures, of different institutional and methodological approaches to evidence-based policy. They consider what elements of the lessons learned might be transferable across national and cultural boundaries, and if so under what conditions. This book was originally published as a special issue of Contemporary Social Science.

Journal Articles by Ashley Thomas Lenihan

Sovereign Wealth Funds and the Acquisition of Power

New Political Economy , Apr 29, 2013

Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are increasingly powerful actors in the international political sys... more Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are increasingly powerful actors in the international political system and world economy. The current discourse often focuses on SWFs as political versus market actors. In this exploratory article, however, it is shown that SWFs may be both. They may be employed as a means to increase a state's relative economic power, even when their individual investments are generally made on the basis of economic, market-driven, logic. After a brief overview of SWFs, and literature review of the issues that attend them, I examine the traditional neorealist understanding of internal balancing and argue that there is evidence to support the claim that SWFs can be employed as tools of this state strategy. Four methods, and two cases (Singapore and China), of internal balancing through SWFs are then examined. I find that some SWFs are used for internal balancing purposes in the conventional sense, but that the phenomena may be better captured by the newer concept of non-military internal balancing (in which a state's relative economic power is enhanced without damage to the overall relationship they currently maintain with the target state).

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Institutionalising evidence-based policy: international insights into knowledge brokerage

Numerous organisations act as ‘evidence brokers’, providing and translating research for use by d... more Numerous organisations act as ‘evidence brokers’, providing and translating research for use by decision-makers. The relationship between the supply and demand for evidence is far from linear, and whether these organisations are self-professed evidence brokers or government appointed bodies, they face similar challenges in their quest to impact policy. This paper analyses the strategies of two organisations considered ‘exemplars’ of institutional knowledge brokerage: the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis and the Washington State Institute for Public Policy. The author posits that three primary factors help these organisations connect evidence successfully to policy-makers: the institution's credibility, based on independence, neutrality, reputation, trust, transparency and the quality of its methods and evidence; the utility of its research, based on transferability, timing, stakeholder involvement and resonance with policy-makers; and the communication of that research, in terms of effectiveness, dissemination, presentation and translation for policy-makers. Findings, and the possibility of applying these insights internationally, are then discussed and contextualised.

Evidence-based policy: exploring international and interdisciplinary insights

by Ashley Thomas Lenihan and Susanne MacGregor

The relationship between international evidence, politics and policy is never straightforward. Po... more The relationship between international evidence, politics and policy is never straightforward. Politicians sometimes cite comparative findings from social science evidence collected and analysed by international organisations to support policy proposals without sufficient understanding of contextual factors. The media may exploit data from such studies to highlight national policy successes and failures. Academic literature on evidence-based policy is often more interested in identifying policies that work than in investigating the reasons why policy solutions might, or might not, be effective if transferred to other regions. This article explores some of the issues involved by examining the relationship between evidence producers and users in different institutional settings, drawing on case studies in health and social policy to illuminate the complexities of the policy process. In considering possible conditions for successful policy learning across time and space, the authors stress the critical need to take account of socioeconomic, political, cultural and disciplinary contexts.

Edited Journals by Ashley Thomas Lenihan

Special Issue: International and Interdisciplinary Insights into Evidence-based Policy

by Ashley Thomas Lenihan and Susanne MacGregor

Reports & Policy Briefs by Ashley Thomas Lenihan

The EU Referendum: Leave - What next for UK social science?

Britain's vote on 23rd June 2016 to leave the European Union will result in uncertainty for the s... more Britain's vote on 23rd June 2016 to leave the European Union will result in uncertainty for the social science community, with implications for research funding, international collaboration, freedom of movement, and capacity building. Until now, the UK social science community has outperformed in terms of EU research funding. We also benefitted from collaboration with our European colleagues and the freedom of movement afforded by our membership of the EU, which allowed UK Universities and research organisations to draw on a pool of international talent and students. This briefing note considers these factors in light of the UK referendum decision and looks at the scale of its implications for UK research. The Government will need to consider these issues carefully in its post-referendum negotiations if UK research excellence is to be protected.

format_quoteEU funding now accounts for over 14% of total research grants for UK higher education institutions, marking an important funding shift.format_quote

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Lessons from Abroad: Intl. Approaches to Promoting Evidence-Based Policy

Alliance for Useful Evidence, Nesta

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Foreign Investment in India after the Global Financial Crisis

India Forum Paper Series, The German Marshall Fund of the United States, Sep 2011

Foreign direct investment both into, and out of, India has yet to recover to the levels reached b... more Foreign direct investment both into, and out of, India has yet to recover to the levels reached before the global financial crisis. This is despite the country's economic resilience in other areas, and a global rise in FDI flows in many emerging market economies during the post-crisis period. Both formal and informal barriers to investment remain challenges for foreign investors in India, including FDI caps, regulatory delays, inflationary pressures, corruption, and poor infrastructure. Given the importance of such investment for future Indian growth -and relations between India and the transatlantic community -the Indian government should continue to seek regulatory and legal reforms that enable greater FDI flows.

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International Institutionalisation of Evidence-Based Policy: Lessons from Abroad and the CPB as an Institutional Exemplar

format_quoteDisagreements among scientists reflect a lack of unified advice, complicating policy-making; competing schools of thought create conflicts.format_quote

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Positive Prospects -- Careers for Social Science Graduates

Positive Prospects -- Careers for Social Science Graduates, 2018

Positive Prospects provides an overview of employment after graduation for those who study a wide... more Positive Prospects provides an overview of employment after graduation for those who study a wide range of social science subjects in the UK. It looks at the longer-term prospects of social science graduates and shows that there is variation between those graduating from different social science disciplines, just as there is with so-called STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) graduates. Positive Prospects examines the effect of graduating from different types of university, while observing that this reflects a great many factors such as students’ backgrounds and where they live and study. A clear finding is that having number and data skills – either from secondary school or as part of undergraduate study – is likely to give individuals of every discipline a wider range of choices about work, meaning they are likely to earn more. This book was written for the Campaign for Social Science, which has long believed that the UK needs more people with conceptual social science skills and knowledge, combined with some number and data skills.

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Seminar 1: Competing for Policy Influence: the Ups and Downs of Social Science Evidence, Introduction

Academy of Social Sciences: Professional Briefings, Feb 2014

format_quoteIndependence of research institutions is crucial for trust and effective evidence use in policymaking.format_quote

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Working Papers by Ashley Thomas Lenihan

The Implications of the EU Referendum for UK Social Science: Post-referendum Options for UK Social Scientists

This paper undertakes a substantive analysis of the relationship between UK social science and th... more This paper undertakes a substantive analysis of the relationship between UK social science and the European Union in the context of the debate about the future development of research following the UK vote in the 2016 Referendum to leave the European Union. The available evidence suggests that, compared to other sciences in the UK and to social scientists in other EU Member States, over the past two decades UK social scientists may have benefitted to a greater extent from the EU funding and capacity building opportunities provided by EU programmes. Recent developments in science policy, at national and European level, in favour of a more 'integrated' approach to research funding and programmes have created new challenges for UK social scientists, requiring innovative forms of cooperation, if they are to retain and build on the international reputation that they established within the EU. In light of the expected negative consequences of a decision to leave the EU, this paper considers some of the options open to UK researchers, and in particular UK social scientists, in the negotiations with EU Member States.

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