After a career in emergency management, including fieldwork, Emma transitioned into international security and graduated with Distinction from the Erasmus Mundus International Master’s in Security, Intelligence & Strategic Studies. Her dissertation on Economic and Financial Tactics in Counterinsurgency earned the highest possible score (A1) and broke new ground in monetary policy research, contradicting key assumptions underpinning the US strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Her investigation of US-based capital investment in the Iran-China nexus sparked new legislation, was discussed live on US national television, and later featured in a documentary. Her co-authored policy recommendations on sanctions against Russia were presented in a side session at GLOBSEC 2024. As part of her tenure as the 2025 YPFP Rising Expert in National Security, she submitted written evidence to the UK Parliament, which was subsequently published by the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Her work as a security researcher led her to co-found a research software company, LIVINI, which helps teams collaboratively leverage open-source information. LIVINI is now developing multiple B2B and B2C projects, all of which are designed to increase the accessibility and fluidity of web-based research, create transparency in the verification and fact-checking process, and empower researchers and analysts with workflows for quantitative analysis.

Emma’s own analysis on sub-threshold conflict, geoeconomics, intelligence, and asymmetric warfare is frequently published in outlets such as RUSI Commentary and The Dispatch, and has been republished by the Washington Post. She is an affiliate researcher at the University of Glasgow, and serves as an advisor to the advocacy coalition A4AL and the independent media outlet Fair Observer.