Experts

The Council on Foreign Relations' David Rockefeller Studies Program—CFR's "think tank"—is home to more than seventy full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners (called fellows). Their expertise covers the world's major regions as well as the critical issues shaping today's global agenda. Download the printable CFR Experts Guide.

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Elliott Abrams

Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies

Former senior director for democracy and human rights, senior director for the Near East, and deputy national security adviser handling Middle East affairs in the George W. Bush administration. Former assistant secretary of state for UN affairs, human rights, and Latin America in the Reagan administration.

Edward Alden

Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow

Former Washington bureau chief at the Financial Times. Recently co-directed the Independent Task Force on U.S. Trade and Investment Policy and was the project director for the Independent Task Force on U.S. Immigration Policy. Latest book, The Closing of the American Border, examines U.S. visa and border policies in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Alyssa C. Ayres

Senior Fellow for South Asia

Former deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia, with more than two decades of experience working on the region across the nonprofit, private, and government sectors. Currently writing a book about India.

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John B. Bellinger III

Adjunct Senior Fellow for International and National Security Law

Partner at Arnold & Porter, LLP. Former legal adviser for the U.S. Department of State and National Security Council. Currently directing a roundtable series on international and national security law.

Charles E. Berger

National Intelligence Fellow

Charles E. Berger is currently assigned as the assistant special agent–in-charge at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the New York field office. He is responsible for supervising squads of special agents tasked with collecting human intelligence in support of FBI and intelligence community priorities.

Robert D. Blackwill

Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy

Former deputy assistant to the president, deputy national security adviser for strategic planning, and presidential envoy to Iraq under George W. Bush. U.S. Ambassador to India from 2001 to 2003. Current work focuses on American foreign policy writ large as well as China, Russia, the Middle East, South Asia, and geoeconomics. Editor of Iran: The Nuclear Challenge and coauthor of Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master's Insights on China, the United States, and the World.

Thomas Bollyky

Senior Fellow for Global Health, Economics, and Development

Expert on international law and regulatory policy, noncommunicable diseases and tobacco control, technological innovation and delivery, international trade and investment, and intellectual property. Adjunct professor of law, former U.S. trade negotiator. Currently directing a roundtable series on Global Health, Economics, and Development.

Max Boot

Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow for National Security Studies

Award-winning author, historian, and military strategist. Author of The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power, War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History, 1500 to Today, and, most recently, the New York Times best-seller Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present.

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John Campbell

Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies

Career Foreign Service officer and former ambassador to Nigeria. Political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria during South Africa's first non-racial elections. His book Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink was published by Rowman & Littlefield in November 2010. The second edition was published in June 2013. He writes the blog "Africa in Transition" and edits the Nigeria Security Tracker.

Scott D. Campbell

Military Fellow

Scott D. Campbell, U.S. Marine Corps, most recently commanded the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit composed of twenty-four hundred marines and sailors, and included thirty-one fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft, which recently completed an eight-month deployment to the Centcom area of operations.

Charles L. Cashin III

Military Fellow

Charles L. Cashin III, U. S. Coast Guard, most recently commanded Coast Guard Cutter Stratton (WMSL 752) home-ported in Alameda, California, where he was responsible for the commissioning and employment of the service's newest national security cutter. Operating across the globe, he has served with the U.S. Department of Defense, the interagency, and numerous international partners performing all Coast Guard missions with a focus toward counterterrorism, law enforcement, homeland security, national defense, and search and rescue.

Blake Clayton

Adjunct Fellow for Energy

Former private sector oil analyst and instructor in finance and economics at Oxford University. Current research focuses on energy security and policy, global commodities markets, and natural resource economics.

Jared Cohen

Adjunct Senior Fellow

Director of Google Ideas, Google Inc. Former member of the policy planning staff under both Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton.

Jerome A. Cohen

Adjunct Senior Fellow for Asia Studies

Internationally renowned expert on the Chinese legal system and professor at NYU School of Law. Current work examines the rule of law in Asian countries.

Isobel Coleman

Senior Fellow and Director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative; Director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program

CFR senior fellow and director of the Civil Society, Markets and Democracy program. Author and co-author of numerous books, including Pathways to Freedom: Political and Economic Lessons from Democratic Transitions (CFR, 2013) and Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East (Random House, 2010), Her writings have also appeared in such publications as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, Washington Post and Financial Times.

Heidi Crebo-Rediker

Senior Fellow

Former Chief Economist, U.S. Department of State. Former Chief of International Finance and Economics, Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Prior to government service, nearly two decades in investment banking running a range of businesses. Research, publications, and events will examine the role of economic statecraft in U.S. foreign policy and on infrastructure as a driver of U.S. competitiveness.