Farah Pandith
August 11, 2025
Topic: The Elements of Soft Power
Farah Pandith is a foreign policy strategist and former diplomat. A world-leading expert and pioneer in countering violent extremism, she is the author of the book How We Win: How Cutting-Edge Entrepreneurs, Political Visionaries, Enlightened Business Leaders, and Social Media Mavens Can Defeat the Extremist Threat. She is a frequent media commentator and public speaker, and has written for publications including The Economist, The Washington Post and The New York Times.
Farah served as a political appointee under three presidents – most recently as the first-ever Special Representative to Muslim Communities, serving both Secretary Clinton and Kerry. She has served on the National Security Council, at the U.S. Department of State, and at the U.S. Agency for International Development in various senior roles. She was appointed to the Department of Homeland Security’s Advisory Council, chairing its countering violent extremism task force.
She is currently a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. She serves on leadership or advisory boards of organizations including We Are Family Foundation, America Abroad Media, The Asian American Foundation, USC Center on Public Diplomacy, and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. Over the last decade she has been a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School, a senior advisor with the Anti-Defamation League and a senior advisor at the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream. In 2020, the Muhammad Ali Center named Farah the first-ever Muhammad Ali Global Peace Laureate for her proven track record of and commitment to promoting humanitarian values; she is the creator and catalyst for the Muhammad Ali Index on Compassion.
Farah received an A.B. from Smith College and a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Farah was born in India and raised in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.