Karolina Hird

Areas of Expertise

Russia & Ukraine

Focus Areas

Product Line

Map Series

Karolina Hird is the Adersary Entente National Security Fellow at ISW. Karolina previously served as a senior analyst on ISW’s Russia Team, supporting the writing, editing, and management process for the Daily Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment since spring 2022. Karolina’s work at ISW has centered around Russian operational art and campaign design, the human rights and humanitarian implications of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the Russia-China-Iran-North Korea entente. Karolina is a graduate of the Hertog War Studies Program and holds the Evans Hanson Fellowship at ISW through the Hertog Foundation. Karolina previously interned with the Institute of National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, focusing on Russian threats to NATO’s southern periphery.

Karolina’s work and analysis have been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, TIME, Associated Press, CNN, Foreign Policy, the Daily Beast, the Kyiv Independent, Voice of America, Politico, the Daily Telegraph, Reuters, Business Insider, Task and Purpose, and others. She has appeared live on BBC and has recorded podcasts with BBC, the Telegraph, NPR, CBC News, Voice of America, and others.

Karolina holds a BA in International Affairs from the George Washington University (GW). Her undergraduate research focused on international law, gender analysis, and security studies. She published an analysis on Poland’s judicial reforms through GW’s pre-law journal and wrote her theses on the rise of right-wing populism in Poland and on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda’s legacy on the prosecution of gender-based and sexual violence as an act of war.