Jon Alterman named Brzezinski Chair at CSIS
February 28, 2012
WASHINGTON, February 28, 2012 — The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) is pleased to announce that Jon B. Alterman has been named Zbigniew Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy. Dr. Alterman will continue to direct CSIS's Middle East Program, which he has led since 2002.
“Jon has established a record at CSIS of scholarly excellence and intellectual rigor, combined with true policy insight,” said Zbigniew K. Brzezinski, CSIS Counselor and Trustee. “He not only has a deep and subtle understanding of the Middle East, but he has demonstrated a keen ability to link that knowledge to strategy and to the hard choices of policymaking.”
"I'm pleased to be able to recognize Jon's important and sustained contributions to the policy debate,” said John J. Hamre, CSIS president and CEO. “Although he is grounded in the Middle East, he has been especially effective linking events there to a broader context. As we struggled over the last year to understand how events in the Middle East would unfold and what they would mean for the rest of the world, Jon has been a real thought leader for us at CSIS and in the broader policy community."
CSIS established the Brzezinski Chair in July 2003 to advance understanding in the fields of geostrategy, international security, and global politics. Reflecting former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski's personal achievements during a long career that has included public service, teaching, and writing, the chair is awarded to a leading scholar-practitioner in global affairs and international strategy.
Much of Dr. Alterman’s scholarship has been grounded in his experience studying the Middle East, yet in recent years he has done an increasing amount of work linking his Middle East expertise to global issues. His earlier work on China, the United States and the Middle East, for example, anticipated the growing Middle Eastern energy trade with Asia and the increasing importance of the region to Chinese economic, political, and military strategy.
In addition to assessing major policy matters, under Dr. Alterman’s leadership the Brzezinski chair will hold a series of events that seek to generate strategic insights rooted in an understanding of the subtleties and distinctions of regions and sub-regions of the world.
Prior to joining CSIS, Dr. Alterman served as a member of the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State and as a special assistant to the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.
He is a member of the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel and served as an expert adviser to the Iraq Study Group (also known as the Baker-Hamilton Commission).
In addition to his policy work, Dr. Alterman teaches Middle Eastern studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the George Washington University.
Before entering government, he was a scholar at the U.S. Institute of Peace and at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. From 1993 to 1997, Dr. Alterman was an award-winning teacher at Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. in history. He also previously worked as a legislative aide to Senator Daniel P. Moynihan (D-NY), responsible for foreign policy and defense.
Dr. Alterman has lectured in more than 25 countries on subjects related to the Middle East and U.S. policy toward the region. He is the author or coauthor of four books on the Middle East and the editor of two more.
In addition to his academic work, Dr. Alterman is sought out as a consultant to business and government and is a frequent commentator in print, on radio, and on television. His opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and other major publications.
He serves on the Board of Advisory Editors of the Middle East Journal, is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Arab Media and Society, and is a former international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he is now a life member. He received his A.B. from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and his Ph.D. at Harvard University.
The activities of the Zbigniew Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy are made possible by generous support from the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation.
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