Charles Edel

Senior Adviser and Australia Chair
Charles Edel

Charles Edel is a senior adviser and the inaugural Australia Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He previously taught at the University of Sydney, where he was also a senior fellow at the United States Studies Centre. Prior to that, Dr. Edel was a professor of strategy and policy at the U.S. Naval War College and served on the U.S. secretary of state’s Policy Planning Staff from 2015 to 2017. In that role, he advised the secretary of state on political and security issues in the Indo-Pacific region. He has also been a global fellow at the Wilson Center and a Henry Luce scholar at Peking University's Center for International and Strategic Studies, and he was awarded the Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship. He is the coauthor of The Lessons of Tragedy: Statecraft and World Order (Yale University Press, 2019) and author of Nation Builder: John Quincy Adams and the Grand Strategy of the Republic (Harvard University Press, 2014). Currently, he is working on a book examining the United States' history of dealing with authoritarian regimes. In addition to his scholarly publications, his writings appear in the Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and various other outlets. He also regularly offers foreign policy commentary on television and radio, including CNBC, ABC, Sky News, Australia’s RN, and NPR. He is a New York native and former high school history teacher in New York City, as well as an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserves. Dr. Edel holds a PhD in history from Yale University and received a BA in classics from Yale College.

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Enhancing Defense Industrial Cooperation Between Australia and the United States

In a time of deepening geopolitical tensions in the Indo-Pacific, the United States and Australia should strengthen their defense industrial cooperation to deter potential adversaries while integrating and expanding both nations’ defense industrial bases.

Report by Cynthia Cook, Charles Edel, Kathryn Paik, Gregory Sanders, Henry H. Carroll, Katy Buda, and John Augé — March 3, 2025

U.S. Allies and Partners Under the Trump Administration

Please join the CSIS Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department for a discussion of the ways in which U.S. allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific, Europe, Africa, and the Americas are navigating the new administration’s policies.

Event — February 18, 2025

Book Event - "On Xi Jinping" with Ambassador Kevin Rudd

The CSIS Freeman Chair and CSIS Australia Chair are pleased to be hosting former Australian Prime Minister and current Australian Ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd for a discussion of his new book "On Xi Jinping: How Xi's Marxist Nationalism is Shaping China and the World" (Oxford University Press, September 2024). 

Event — October 21, 2024

The Truth of the Matter

The Peril of American Neglect in the Pacific

Charles Edel, CSIS Senior Adviser and Australia Chair, and Kathryn Paik, Senior Fellow with the CSIS Australia Chair, join the podcast to discuss their new Foreign Affairs article on how China is dominating foreign policy in the Pacific.

Podcast Episode by H. Andrew Schwartz, Kathryn Paik, and Charles Edel — October 15, 2024

CSIS the truth of the matter

The Global Impact of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election

Please join us for the inaugural event of the CSIS Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department to discuss a collection of essays by CSIS scholars assessing the meaning of the election for Europe, Russia, Eurasia, the Indo-Pacific, the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East. 

Event — September 26, 2024