Melissa Peterson Smith is a political analyst at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) in Washington, DC. In that role, she coordinates across the US Intelligence Community to provide strategic analysis that prepares senior national security principals for policy deliberations on both the US counterterrorism and South Asia strategies. Prior to joining NCTC, she led a team of analysts at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in support of US counterterrorism operations. She also worked previously with the Departments of Defense and State on issues related to treaty monitoring.  Melissa holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Bryn Mawr College and a master’s degree in the social sciences from the University of Chicago. Her research interests include examining the forces that drive institutional change and ways to balance the achievement of short-term counter-terror successes with longer term CT goals.