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Hal Brands

Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor

About

Hal Brands is the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA). 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, and has been a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. He has also consulted with a range of government offices and agencies in the intelligence and national security communities and served as lead writer for the Commission on the National Defense Strategy for the United States.

Hal received his BA from Stanford University (2005) and his PhD from Yale University (2009). He previously worked at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and the Institute for Defense Analyses. He lives in Maryland with his wife and two children.

Expertise

Topics

  • American Defense Policy
  • American Foreign Policy
  • Domestic Influences On Foreign Policy
  • Grand Strategy
  • History
  • International Relations
  • Latin American Security and Diplomacy
  • Nuclear Policy and Proliferation
  • Strategic and Security Issues
  • U.S. Congress and Foreign Policy
  • U.S. Presidency and Foreign Policy

In the News

Attacks on Russia Test the Limits of US-Ukraine Alliance

Analysis by Hal Brands in Bloomberg, 12/06

Aiding a Ukrainian Insurgency Would Be Painful and Costly

Hal Brands wrote in Bloomberg, 03/06

The ‘Putin Doctrine’ becomes clear in Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

Hal Brands wrote in Bloomberg Opinion, 01/06

China is running out of water and that’s scary for Asia.

Hal Brands wrote in Bloomberg Opinion, 12/29

Beijing’s gambit.

Hal Brands wrote in Engelsberg Ideas, 12/10

Cold War.

Hal Brands wrote in Engelsberg Ideas, 12/09

The totalitarian challenge.

Hal Brands wrote in Engelsberg Ideas, 12/08

Putin isn’t the only reason Biden’s 'pivot to Asia' is doomed.

Hal Brands wrote in Bloomberg Opinion, 12/07

The great black tornado.

Hal Brands wrote in Engelsberg Ideas, 12/07

What Mackinder knew.

Hal Brands wrote in Engelsberg Ideas, 12/06

Containment can work against China, too.

Hal Brands wrote in Wall Street Journal, 12/03