Hal Brands

Hal advises clients on US policy. He is the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He writes a regular column on global affairs for Bloomberg opinion.

Hal previously served as an adviser to the secretary of defense and a member of the Secretary of State's Foreign Affairs Policy Board; he has consulted with a range of government offices and agencies in the intelligence and national security communities. He speaks on geopolitical risk, US foreign policy, and related issues, to audiences—in government, academia, and the private sector—around the world.

Hal is the author or co-author of several books, most recently The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern World (2025); 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).  

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