Professor Karen Smith

Karen E. Smith is a Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research interests centre on foreign policy analysis and international organizations, mainly the European Union. 

She has published extensively on the formulation and implementation of EU foreign policies, including the EU’s pursuit of ‘ethical’ foreign policy goals such as promoting human rights and democracy, and on policymaking within European states regarding genocide. 

She has a strong interest in the role that emotions can play in EU foreign policy. She has also analysed EU-UN relations, and the role of political and regional groups generally in UN diplomacy. She is currently investigating the role of women in foreign policymaking, and is leading the Women in Diplomacy project at LSE IDEAS. She has a PhD from the LSE.