Hal Brands

Hal advises clients on US policy. He is the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Hal served as special assistant to the secretary of defense for strategic planning. He was the lead writer for the Commission on the National Defense Strategy for the United States and consulted with a range of government offices and agencies in the intelligence and national security communities. He is a member of the State Department Foreign Affairs Policy Board.

Hal holds a PhD in history from Yale University and a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Stanford University.

Hal is the author or co-author of several books, most recently Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China (2022), The Twilight Struggle: What the Cold War Teaches Us About Great-Power Rivalry Today (2022)  and The Lessons of Tragedy: Statecraft and World Order (2019).  He is also a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.