Hal Brands

Hal Brands is the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, and a senior advisor at Macro Advisory Partners.

He previously served as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Strategic Planning, as a member of the Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board, and as the lead writer for the Commission on the National Defense Strategy for the United States. He has also consulted for offices and agencies across the US intelligence and national security communities.

Brands is the author, co-author, or editor of numerous books on US foreign policy, grand strategy, and great-power competition. His most recent works include The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern World, Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China, co-authored with Michael Beckley, and The Twilight Struggle: What the Cold War Teaches Us about Great-Power Rivalry Today. His other major works include The Lessons of Tragedy: Statecraft and World Order, co-authored with Charles Edel, American Grand Strategy in the Age of Trump, Making the Unipolar Moment: US Foreign Policy and the Rise of the Post-Cold War Order, What Good Is Grand Strategy?: Power and Purpose in American Statecraft from Harry S. Truman to George W. Bush, Latin America’s Cold War and From Berlin to Baghdad: America’s Search for Purpose in the Post-Cold War World.

In addition to his regular Bloomberg column, Brands has written widely for leading academic and policy publications, including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, International Security, Commentary, The National Interest, and The Washington Quarterly, among others, and is a frequent commentator in print and broadcast media.

He received his PhD, MA, and MPhil in history from Yale University and earned a BA in history and political science from Stanford University.