Professor Hal Brands Named 20th Library of Congress Kissinger Chair

Professor Hal Brands has been named the twentieth Henry A. Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden upon the recommendation of a selection committee of academics and former foreign policy officials. Established in 2000, the annual Chair will contribute thoughtful research on foreign policy and international affairs for publication. Previous chair holders have included former advisors to and representatives of the United States Government as well as leading academics around the world.  Professor Brands also provided expert comment in a Kluge Center event titled, “Diplomacy after COVID: Is China Winning the Global PR Battle?” on June 26, 2020.


Professor Hal Brands is the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He is also a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. He is the author or editor of several books, including American Grand Strategy in the Age of Trump (2018), Making the Unipolar Moment: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Rise of the Post-Cold War Order (2016), What Good is Grand Strategy? Power and Purpose in American Statecraft from Harry S. Truman to George W. Bush (2014), Latin America’s Cold War (2010), From Berlin to Baghdad: America’s Search for Purpose in the Post-Cold War World (2008), and The Power of the Past: History and Statecraft (co-edited with Jeremi Suri, 2015). His newest book is The Lessons of Tragedy: Statecraft and World Order, co-authored with Charles Edel. Hal served as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Strategic Planning from 2015 to 2016. He has also served as lead writer for the Commission on the National Defense Strategy for the United States, and consulted with government offices and agencies in the intelligence and national security communities.