Luke Coffey

Senior Fellow, Center on Europe and Eurasia

luke_coffey

At A Glance:

Luke Coffey is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. His work analyzes national security and foreign policy, with a focus on Europe, Eurasia, NATO, and transatlantic relations.

Biography

Luke Coffey is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. His work at Hudson analyzes national security and foreign policy, with a focus on Europe, Eurasia, NATO, and transatlantic relations.

Mr. Coffey was previously director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation from 2015 to 2022, in which role he oversaw and managed a team covering most of Heritage’s foreign policy and international affairs work. From 2012 to 2015, he was the Margaret Thatcher fellow at Heritage, focusing on relations between the United States and the United Kingdom and on the role of NATO and the European Union in transatlantic and Eurasian security.

Before joining Heritage, Mr. Coffey served at the UK Ministry of Defence as senior special adviser to then-British Defence Secretary Liam Fox. He was the first non-UK citizen appointed to this position by the prime minister to provide advice to senior British ministers. Among his duties was helping shape British defense policy in relation to transatlantic security, NATO, the Middle-East, and Afghanistan.

Mr. Coffey previously worked in the House of Commons as an adviser on defense and security issues for the Conservative Party. He helped develop and implement policy initiatives on security and defense matters, in particular drafting the defense section of the party’s 2010 election manifesto.

His work in British politics followed his service to the United States as a commissioned officer in the Army. He spent his entire time on active duty overseas and was stationed in Italy with the Army’s Southern European Task Force. In 2005, Mr. Coffey deployed to Afghanistan for a year and was awarded the Bronze Star.

Mr. Coffey’s commentary and analysis have been widely published and he has been interviewed on television and radio by prestigious media outlets in the US and overseas. For his work in support of Ukrainian sovereignty, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded him an Order of Merit, Third Class in August 2024.

Mr. Coffey has testified before the US Congress on NATO, Arctic security, the war in Afghanistan, and US policy in the South Caucasus. He has provided written testimony to the UK’s House of Lords Committee on the Arctic. His research has been quoted in reports by the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee and the House of Lords Committee on the Arctic.

Mr. Coffey received a Master of Science degree in the politics and government of the European Union from the London School of Economics. He holds a BA in political science from the University of Missouri–St. Louis and studied African politics at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa.

An avid traveler, Mr. Coffey has lived on four continents and visited more than seventy countries. A native of Missouri, he and his family currently reside in Northern Virginia.

Events
27
August 2024
Past Event
Resisting the Taliban and Preparing for the Future of Afghanistan
Featured Speakers:
Ahmad Massoud
Ali Maisam Nazary
Ambassador M. Ashraf Haidari
Luke Coffey
Moderator:
Jeremy Hunt
Afghan girls gather near their house in Ghazni, Afghanistan, on August 19, 2024. (Photo by Mohammad Faisal Naweed/AFP via Getty Images)
27
August 2024
Past Event
Resisting the Taliban and Preparing for the Future of Afghanistan

Please join Hudson for an event with the leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, Ahmad Massoud. Following his virtual remarks, an in-person panel of experts will discuss the resistance against the Taliban and the future of Afghanistan.

Afghan girls gather near their house in Ghazni, Afghanistan, on August 19, 2024. (Photo by Mohammad Faisal Naweed/AFP via Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Ahmad Massoud
Ali Maisam Nazary
Ambassador M. Ashraf Haidari
Luke Coffey
Moderator:
Jeremy Hunt
09
August 2024
Past Event
Ukraine’s Kursk Incursion: What We Know So Far
Featured Speakers:
Luke Coffey
Can Kasapoğlu
Moderator:
Daniel Kochis
Ukrainian soldiers fire an artillery piece at their combat position in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on July 26, 2024. (Photo by Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu via Getty Images)
09
August 2024
Past Event
Ukraine’s Kursk Incursion: What We Know So Far

Join Hudson experts Luke Coffey and Can Kasapoğlu for a discussion on what the surprise Ukrainian incursion into Kursk could mean for the war.

Ukrainian soldiers fire an artillery piece at their combat position in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on July 26, 2024. (Photo by Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Luke Coffey
Can Kasapoğlu
Moderator:
Daniel Kochis
30
July 2024
Past Event
A Conversation on US-Azerbaijan Relations with Ambassador Elchin Amirbayov
Featured Speakers:
Ambassador Elchin Amirbayov
Luke Coffey
Michael Doran
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on May 10, 2024, in Almaty, Kazakhstan. (Photo by Azerbaijani ForeignMinistry/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
30
July 2024
Past Event
A Conversation on US-Azerbaijan Relations with Ambassador Elchin Amirbayov

Hudson Senior Fellows Michael Doran and Luke Coffey host Ambassador Elchin Amirbayov.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on May 10, 2024, in Almaty, Kazakhstan. (Photo by Azerbaijani ForeignMinistry/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Ambassador Elchin Amirbayov
Luke Coffey
Michael Doran
09
July 2024
Past Event
Postponed | A Conversation with Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mihai Popșoi ahead of the Washington Summit
Featured Speakers:
Mihai Popșoi
Luke Coffey
Daniel Kochis
Mihai Popoi delivers a press conference at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin, on April 9, 2024. (Photo by John Macdougall/AFP via Getty Images)
09
July 2024
Past Event
Postponed | A Conversation with Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mihai Popșoi ahead of the Washington Summit

Mihai Popșoi, the deputy prime minister and foreign minister of the Republic of Moldova, will sit down with Luke Coffey for a fireside chat about Moldova’s foreign policy and the Washington summit.

Mihai Popoi delivers a press conference at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin, on April 9, 2024. (Photo by John Macdougall/AFP via Getty Images)
Featured Speakers:
Mihai Popșoi
Luke Coffey
Daniel Kochis