Cécile Shea

About Cécile Shea

Cécile Shea is a nonresident senior fellow on security and diplomacy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. She is the president of Wakaru Communications and a special advisor to the Council’s Next Generation programs.

Prior to moving to Chicago, Cecile served as a US diplomat for over two decades. She spent much of her career working on Asian issues, including as political advisor to US Marine Corps Forces Pacific, press attaché and media analysis chief at US Embassy Tokyo, senior political policy officer at US Embassy Islamabad, Pakistan, and vice-consul Chiang Mai, Thailand. Shea's other overseas tours included US Consul General Edinburgh, Scotland and political policy officer Tel Aviv, Israel. She spent a year as the foreign policy fellow in the office of former Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and was a national security affairs fellow at the Hoover Institute.

Currently, Shea's research focuses on nontraditional security threats, including unemployment, economic displacement, and demographic change. She is particularly interested in how the robotics revolution will impact transportation, the labor market, and military conflict.

Shea devotes significant time to encouraging Chicago Public Schools students to pursue careers in public service and to become engaged in the political process.