Stephen Flanagan is senior vice president and director of the International Security Program at CSIS, where he holds the Henry A. Kissinger Chair in National Security Policy.  Before joining CSIS, as director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies and vice president for research at the National Defense University from January 2001 through May 2007.  He held several senior positions in government between 1989 and 1999, including special assistant to the president and senior director for Central and Eastern Europe, National Security Council Staff; associate director and member of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff; and national intelligence officer for Europe. Earlier in his career, he was a professional staff member of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (1978–1983). 

Flanagan has also held several academic and research positions, including senior fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies; faculty member at the National War College, NDU; and executive director, Center for Science and International Affairs and faculty member at Harvard’s Kennedy School; and international affairs fellow, Council on Foreign Relations.

He has published numerous books and articles on international security affairs and is coauthor of Challenges of the Global Century (2001), and coeditor of The PLA and China in Transition (2003) and Strategic Challenges: America’s Global Security Agenda (summer 2007). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies and serves on the editorial boards of the journals Joint Force Quarterly, International Security, and Politique Americaine. 

Flanagan is a recipient of the State Department’s Superior and Meritorious Service Awards, the CJCS Distinguished Civilian Service Award, as well as decorations from the presidents of Poland and Romania. He earned his B.A. in political science from Columbia University in 1973 and his Ph.D. in international relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University in 1979.

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