About Sophia
Short Biography
Sophia Gaston is a British foreign policy researcher and geopolitical analyst, focused on the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific security theatres. She is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Statecraft and National Security in the Department of War Studies at King's College London. Sophia's research explores how best Britain can advance its core strategic interests, reinvigorate its closest alliances, and harness its instruments of national power to respond to the disruptive influence of authoritarian states like China and Russia. Sophia advises the British Government as an external challenge partner and policy expert, and trains civil servants on geopolitical capabilities. She is an established broadcaster and media commentator, and presents regularly on her work at conferences around the world. Sophia is a Senior Fellow at the ASPI think tank, an Expert Associate at the National Security College in Canberra, and an Academic Fellow at the European Policy Centre in Brussels.
About Sophia
Sophia Gaston is a London-based British foreign policy expert. She is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Statecraft and National Security in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. Her research focuses on strengthening the resilience and competitiveness of advanced liberal democracies in a turbulent geopolitical era, with a particular focus on British strategic advantage.
Sophia also holds affiliations as a Senior Fellow at the global security think tank ASPI, an Expert Associate at the National Security College at the Australian National University in Canberra, and an Academic Fellow at the European Policy Centre in Brussels.
Sophia is an established policy adviser and commentator on key contemporary geopolitical issues, with a unique purview spanning both the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific security theatres. She has particularly strong insights into the primacy of the UK’s relationship with the United States, and is working to support a new era of stable Anglo-American cooperation in a period of political uncertainty.
Sophia has worked extensively on the reconstitution of Britain’s strategic and security role in Europe, supporting closer and more productive relationships with key partners such as France, Germany, the EU, and the Baltic and Nordic states. She is a strong proponent of the UK’s leadership in NATO and the development of a coherent and impactful European defence industrial base, alongside the advancement of Britain’s active role in the defence and reconstruction of Ukraine.
Sophia is also recognised as an expert on the geopolitical challenge of China, and trains British civil servants on China capabilities. Sophia co-authored several landmark research papers on the UK-China relationship with Professor Rana Mitter of Harvard Kennedy School, which supported the shift towards a more confident and robust security posture. She has also been an energetic advocate for the AUKUS trilateral partnership, founding the British AUKUS Industry Forum, supporting the creation of the AUKUS All-Party Parliamentary Group, and hosting the high-level AUKUS Dialogue in Washington, D.C. in May 2025.
Sophia has held a number of leadership positions in internationally recognised think tanks and prestigious academic institutions. From 2019 – 2022 she served as the Director of the British Foreign Policy Group, which under her leadership grew to become a highly respected and influential think tank supporting the advancement of the Global Britain agenda. She has also been a Research Member at the University of Oxford, and spent several years as a Visiting Fellow and Head of Research for the Arena Unit in the Institute of Global Affairs at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Sophia has a unique perspective on geopolitics due to her deep understanding of domestic social and political trends, having pioneered quantitative and qualitative research into the evolving social attitudes on foreign policy in the United Kingdom, establishing the gold-standard annual surveys on public opinion on international affairs. She has written several highly influential studies into how to bring together domestic and international policy agendas, as a means of supporting public consent for more open, ambitious and connected foreign policy missions. Sophia is also focused on exploring the implications that our allies' complicated domestic social landscapes will pose for the UK's own strategic objectives, including the crucial relationship with the United States.
Sophia's previous research has focused on populism, nationalism, and the growth of anti-establishment movements, as well as broader threats to governance in Western nations, including disinformation, trust in institutions and social competition. She led large-scale, innovative social studies into the significance of nostalgia as a contemporary cultural and political force in the United Kingdom, France and Germany, and a six-country study into the activation of 'fear' in Europe's political culture.
Sophia is a regular media commentator for national and global publications and broadcast television, and frequently presents on her research at UK and international conferences. She also advises the UK Government and private sector organisations on geopolitical risk, strategic forecasting, and policy development.
Speaking and Writing Highlights