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.

  • Visit my Morning Consult Author Page

    In a private capacity

    Morning Consult research notes (selected)

    • Aug 7, 2024. Globally, Public Support for Palestinians Does Not Equate to Support for Iran

    • Jul 9, 2024. France Enters a Period of Policy Uncertainty Following Polarizing Snap Elections

    • Jul 27, 2023. Public Opinion on Immigration and Environment Show Why the Center Held in Spain’s Elections

    • Jul 06, 2023. How Patriotism Impacts Global Consumer Demand for Domestic Products

    • Jun 26, 2023. Tracking Sentiment in Russia After Wagner Group’s March on Moscow.

    • May 23, 2023. Americans Favor Tighter Review of Foreign Land Ownership in Light of Chinese Espionage Concerns.

    • May 02, 2023. Earthquake Barely Shakes Erdogan’s Support Weeks Before Key Turkish Elections

    • Apr 04, 2023. Europe Wants to ‘De-Risk’ Its China Relationship. Or Does It?

    • Mar 17, 2023. Tech Workers Take Another Look at Defense in Light of Layoffs

    • Feb 15, 2023. One Year of War Has Made Russians More Militaristic, Nationalistic and Closed to Foreign Business.

    • Jan 17, 2023. Frisbie, Sonnet and Scott Moskowitz. India in Between: Modi’s Delicate Dance of Diplomatic Moderation Offers Risks and Rewards

    • Jan 09, 2023. For Gen Z, the Future of Corporate Activism Is Local First, Global Second

    • Oct 19, 2022. Are Cryptocurrencies and CBDCs Rivals? Not to Consumers

    • Sep 20, 2022. Despite the Body’s Global Popularity, Republicans’ Views of the United Nations Will Constrain U.S. Engagement

    • Jul 19, 2022. Europeans’ Mistrust of U.S. Data Handling Bodes Ill for New Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework

    • Jul 07, 2022. Jumping on the ‘Friend-Shoring’ Bandwagon Will Yield Marginal Revenue Benefits for Most Companies

    • May 20, 2022. U.S.-E.U. Coordination on Artificial Intelligence Shouldn’t Ignore U.S. Voters’ Concerns About Jobs

    • May 12, 2022. For Companies That Stayed in Russia, the Risk of Reputational Blowback is Strong When and Where Awareness is High

    Cross Country and Thematic Reports

    • Jan. 8, 2024. McMann, Jason, Sonnet Frisbie. The Year Ahead in Geopolitical Risk: 2024 report.

    • Nov 29, 2023. The State of Trans-Atlantic Relations: H2 2023 Report.

    • Jun 13, 2022. Principato, Charlotte, Sonnet Frisbie and Jesse Wheeler. The Crypto Report: Our Analysts on the State of Cryptocurrency.

    • Global Corporate Purpose Tracker. Morning Consult. Quarterly tracker series.

    • Aug 31, 2022. McMann, Jason, Sonnet Frisbie and Scott Moskowitz. Introducing Morning Consult’s U.S. Foreign Policy Sentiment Indexes.

  • Foreign Service Women professional matching algorithm

    • Description: 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.

    • Code:here

     Chinese Debt and Soft Power as Measured through Country Recommendations in the UN Universal Periodic Review.

    • ·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

    • Code: here

    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.