Sonnet Frisbie

Global affairs thinker, writer, and practitioner

Hi. I'm Sonnet. I worked as an economic diplomat for over a decade in markets ranging from Central Europe to the Middle East. Now I'm the Deputy Head of Political Intelligence at Morning Consult, a survey data company. My field is foreign affairs, and my passion is combining quantitative know-how with qualitative understanding to see things others miss.

My analysis and commentary have been featured in the New York Times, Axios, the Financial Times, Foreign Policy, The Foreign Service Journal, Bloomberg, Politico, Semafor and more. I'm originally from Lubbock, Texas, and I've formally studied economics, international affairs, and data analytics. I also love foreign language, and I speak Czech, Spanish, German, and Polish. Reach out to learn more.

Sonnet Frisbie
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Writing

Selected research, analysis, and commentary

Visit my full Morning Consult author page →

Sonnet Frisbie speaking at a conference panel

Speaking

Conference presentations and panel discussions

Sonnet Frisbie on Deutsche Welle

In the Media

Broadcast appearances and print citations

  • Dec 2023 Deutsche Welle: The Day "The Trans-Atlantic alliance and support for Ukraine"
  • Jul 2023 Sirius XM Radio: Julie Mason Show "Patriotism and preference for local goods internationally"
  • Feb 2023 CNBC Crypto World "Cryptocurrency Really Is a Trustless Asset After a Disastrous 2023"
  • Feb 2023 NPR's Marketplace "Global geopolitical outlook"
  • Jan 2023 Nasdaq Trade Talks "For Gen Z, the Future of Corporate Activism Is Local First, Global Second"
  • Sep 2022 Bloomberg Triple Take "U.S. engagement in the UN post-2022 midterms"
  • Aug 2022 Yahoo! Finance "Grain Shipments out of Odessa, Ukraine"
  • Sep 2024 Politico Europe "Sept 20 Brussels Playbook"
  • Mar 2024 The New York Times "The World's Unpopular Leaders"
  • Jan 2024 Time "New Polling Shows How Much Global Support Israel Has Lost"
  • Sep 2023 Axios Caitlin Owens — "Security concerns give GOP edge on the opioid crisis"
  • Aug 2023 The Economist "What India's foreign-news coverage says about its world-view"
  • Jun 2023 Foreign Policy Bibek Bhandari — "India and China Are Locked in a Cycle of Mutual Spite"
  • Mar 2023 Axios Sam Sabin — "Exclusive: New poll finds tech workers considering defense work amid layoffs"
  • Feb 2023 Axios Brady Dale — "Charted: A currency crisis as seen on chain"
  • Jan 2023 Bloomberg News Eltaf Najafizada — "Indians View US as Biggest Threat After China, Survey Shows"
Data analysis code screenshot

Data Analysis

Research projects and technical skills

By using the Hungarian method coupled with original survey data from women in foreign affairs agencies, I match roughly 500 women to appropriate reviewers each year since 2021. This project was nominated for the annual "Data at State" award.

View code on GitHub →

This is an independent research project in which I coupled analysis of statements in the UN Universal Periodic Review of human rights with data on Chinese investment to show the relationship between Chinese lending and changes in such comments in the UPR. Techniques used included NLP sentiment analysis, Difference in difference, ordinary least squares regressions, and RShiny and html for presentation.

Presented at IPES 2021 and the 2021 Joint Conference on Human Rights & Foreign Policy.

View code on GitHub →

In addition to the public projects highlighted here, I have utilized a variety of advanced analytical techniques to drive insights in previous roles:

  • Principal Component Analysis (PCA) — Applied to distill complex datasets into key factors influencing political and economic behavior
  • Random Forest Classification and Regression Models — Used in predictive modeling to evaluate the risk of civil unrest in a given period
  • Causal Survey Experiments — Designed and executed experiments to establish cause-and-effect relationships, providing deeper insights into consumer behavior as relates to political sentiment
  • Big Data Correlational Studies — Analyzed datasets with millions of observations to identify patterns and relationships between key variables in global political and commercial contexts
  • R to PowerPoint Pipelines — Developed automated workflows to streamline data visualization and presentation, tailored to specific client or organizational branding needs
  • API Integration & JSON Parsing — Created custom scripts to extract, process, and analyze political data from APIs, providing real-time insights
  • Advanced ggplot Customization — Produced sophisticated visualizations aligned with corporate design standards, ensuring clear communication of complex data insights