Patrick Quirk

Patrick W. Quirk is senior director of the Center for Global Impact at the International Republican Institute (IRI) and a nonresident fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. Previously, he served on the U.S. Secretary of State’s Policy Planning (S/P) staff in the Department of State as the lead advisor for fragile states, conflict and stabilization, and foreign assistance. In this capacity, he regularly provided independent policy analysis to the Secretary on these themes. From 2018-19, he conceptualized, and managed the process to advance, the new U.S. approach to fragile states.

Prior to Policy Planning, he served in State’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO) as senior advisor for policy and strategy. In this capacity, he was the chief political scientist for, and a lead author of, the 2018 Stabilization Assistance Review; led the team that conceptualized and institutionalized CSO’s approach to mitigate conflict surrounding high-priority elections and political transitions; and deployed to Myanmar, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, and Tunisia to work on conflict prevention efforts. From 2017-18, he was a nonresident Penn Kemble fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy.

Prior to government service, Quirk was a research fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, where he led a research study on how rising powers like China, Russia, and India use foreign aid to advance their national interests and the implications for U.S. national security. Prior to GMF, he was a senior manager at Creative Associates International, where he led risk assessments for the U.S. government, managed democracy assistance and conflict prevention programs in East Africa and the Middle East, and was responsible for business development.

Quirk is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, teaching courses on stabilization and political violence. His book, “Great Powers, Weak States, and Insurgency: Explaining Internal Threat Alliances,” was published in 2017. He also co-authored USAID’s “Best Practices in Electoral Security, a Guide for Democracy, Human Rights and Governance Programming” and is the lead author of CSO’s “Electoral Violence Assessment Framework” assessment methodology.

Quirk earned a bachelor's in history from Bates College and a doctorate in political science from Johns Hopkins University.

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., Political Science, Johns Hopkins University (2014)
• B.A., Bates College (2003)