Anthony H. Cordesman

Anthony H. Cordesman is the Emeritus Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He has previously served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Council, the State Department, and the Department of Energy. Dr Cordesman also served as the national security assistant to Senator John McCain, and he previously held the position of adjunct professor at Georgetown University. He has been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by the Office of the Secretary of Defense. During his career, he has held assignments in the U.S. embassy in London, the U.S. embassy in Iran, and in official assignments elsewhere in the Middle East. Dr. Cordesman also served as a consultant to the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), worked on force planning and net assessment in the NATO International Staff, and held a position as an analyst on security developments in China and Asia. During his time at CSIS, Dr. Cordesman previously held the Burke Chair in Strategy. In that capacity, he served as the director of the Gulf Net Assessment Project and the Gulf in Transition Study, as well as the principal investigator of the CSIS Homeland Defense Project. He has led studies on national missile defense, asymmetric warfare and weapons of mass destruction, and critical infrastructure protection. He directed the CSIS Middle East Net Assessment Project, codirected the CSIS Strategic Energy Initiative, and spearheaded assessments of Russian and Chinese military forces and competition with the United States and its strategic partners. He is the author of a wide range of studies on U.S. security policy, energy policy, and Middle East policy and has served as a consultant to the Departments of State and Defense during the Afghan and Iraq wars. He served as part of General Stanley McChrystal’s civilian advisory group during the formation of a new strategy in Afghanistan and has since acted as a consultant to various elements of the U.S. military and NATO. Current projects include ongoing analysis of the security situation in the Gulf, U.S. strategic competition with Iran, the conflicts in Syria and Iraq, a net assessment of the Indian Ocean region, Chinese military developments and U.S. and Asian assessments of these developments, changes in the nature of modern war, and assessments of U.S. defense strategy, programs, and budgets. Cordesman is the author of more than 50 books, including a four-volume series on the lessons of modern war. His most recent publications include: